In U.S. This Year, I.P.O.s Leave the Gate at Full Speed

When the online food-ordering company Seamless was founded in late 1999, it was too young to take advantage of the era’s fever pitch for newly public start-ups.

In the intervening 14 years, the market has waxed and waned, but the business of initial public offerings is bustling once more, just as the company, which merged last year with its rival GrubHub, is finally preparing its own stock listing.

GrubHub, as the merged companies are now called, and IMS Health, a big provider of prescription data, are two of the latest companies hoping to seize upon investor demand for new stock offerings. But they are also hoping to avoid the stumbles that have bedeviled a few high-profile issuers in recent weeks, most prominently King Digital Entertainment, the maker of Candy Crush Saga.

They may be off to a promising start. GrubHub priced its offering on Thursday night at $26 a share, surpassing an already increased price range and raising $192.4 million for itself and investors who plan to sell.The IMS offering was priced at $20 a share, raising $1.3 billion.

One thing is clear: The market for I.P.O.s has reached levels unseen in years. Companies worldwide raised $47.2 billion in new stock sales during the first quarter, up 98 percent compared with those in the same period a year earlier, according to Thomson Reuters.

The United States has proved even busier, with 64 companies raising $10.6 billion in the most active first quarter since 2000, according to data from Renaissance Capital.

So far, the pace of new offerings shows little sign of slowing down. Several big names â€" including the Alibaba Group, the Chinese online commerce giant whose coming I.P.O. could set records for size â€" are expected to debut this year. Other eagerly anticipated offerings include those for the online storage provider Box and the sports camera maker GoPro.

“The pipeline is really strong,” said Neil Dhar, the United States leader of PricewaterhouseCoopers’s capital markets practice.

As the stock markets continue to boom, aided by low interest rates, investors have continued to clamor for I.P.O.s as mutual funds and other financial players chase growth.

“When most offerings go out, they’re way oversubscribed,” Mr. Dhar said. “Investor sentiment around I.P.O.s is still very strong.”

GrubHub certainly seized upon investor anticipation. The company disclosed on Monday that it had raised its expected price range by $3 a share, to $23 to $25 each. At its offering price, the company will be valued at about $2 billion.

Drawing investor attention was the company’s remarkable growth. GrubHub reported a nearly 67 percent jump in sales last year, to $137.1 million. The number of revenue-generating food orders that it processes each day, what the company calls “daily average grubs,” rose 44 percent, to 135,500, though some of the increase can be attributed to the merger with Seamless.

IMS Health, on the other hand, has lured investors with its strong financial performance. The company reported $2.5 billion in revenue last year, its fourth consecutive year of rising sales. Its financial operations have been so healthy that its private equity owners took out $753 million in dividends last year.

Not all companies looking to go public are feeling so bold about their prospects. Virtu Financial, a high-frequency trading firm, disclosed in its prospectus that it lost money on just one day in nearly five years, an achievement that not even Goldman Sachs can claim. But it has postponed its coming I.P.O. until at least later this month as it waits for the furor stirred up by Michael Lewis’s latest book, “Flash Boys,” to quiet down, according to people briefed on the matter.

Nevertheless, investment firms continue to see I.P.O.s as a potentially lucrative way to cash out their investments. Private equity firms in particular are choosing to take their portfolio companies public, betting that they will ultimately reap more by selling shares over time than by selling the companies outright.

Most of GrubHub’s backers, notably Spectrum Equity, Warburg Pincus and an arm of Goldman Sachs, are selling stock in the offering.

IMS’s main backers, including TPG and the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board, are expected to sell more than 13 million shares.

Despite the torrid pace of the I.P.O. business, some signs of investor wariness are beginning to appear. Renaissance Capital’s I.P.O. exchange-traded fund, which tracks the stock performance of recent offerings, has lagged behind the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index for most of the last month, in part because of poor performers.

King Digital, the company behind the wildly popular Candy Crush Saga puzzle game, has traded consistently below its offering price of $22.50 a share in one of the most disappointing market debuts in recent months. The stock closed on Thursday at $19.93.

And the stock of Castlight Health, whose software helps corporations manage their health care costs, has tumbled 43 percent since it started trading two weeks ago. Its closing stock price on Thursday, $22.54, remains well above its offering price of $16, however.

Analysts have pointed to a recent slowdown in highflying growth stocks, like Yelp, the online review site. Its shares have dropped 26 percent over the last month, closing on Thursday at $70.61.

Those stumbles may force some companies and their advisers to price I.P.O.s more conservatively for the time being.

To Kathleen S. Smith, a principal at Renaissance Capital, that market discipline is welcome.

“Investors have become more cautious because the returns have been poor,” she said. “This is not 1999 or 2000, in that investors are not jumping to get into everything.”

Overseer of Compliance at SAC Is Selected

Bart M. Schwartz, a former federal prosecutor who has served as an independent monitor in a number of government investigations, will be Steven A. Cohen’s minder, if a federal judge approves.

Federal prosecutors and lawyers for Mr. Cohen have agreed on the selection of Mr. Schwartz, 67, to serve as the outside compliance consultant to oversee activities at Mr. Cohen’s investment firm as a condition of SAC Capital Advisors guilty plea to insider trading charges.

Prosecutors disclosed the choice of Mr. Schwartz in a sentencing memorandum filed on Thursday in support of the plea deal that authorities reached with SAC last November. In the deal, SAC has agreed to pay a penalty of $1.2 billion and stop managing money for outside investors.

The guilty plea by SAC is one of the most significant achievements of the federal government’s long investigation of the once-mighty hedge fund and its billionaire owner. The firm, founded by Mr. Cohen in 1992 with just $25 million, is pleading guilty to securities fraud charges, although Mr. Cohen himself is not charged with any criminal wrongdoing.

Next Thursday, Judge Laura Taylor Swain of the Federal District Court in Manhattan is scheduled to decide whether to accept SAC’s guilty plea and the deal the firm struck with United States attorney’s office in Manhattan. On Monday, Mr. Cohen is to formally rename his Stamford, Conn., firm as a family office that will manage mainly his personal fortune and will operate under the name Point72 Asset Management.

The selection of a compliance monitor, the cost of which will be borne by Mr. Cohen, had not been previously known. In picking Mr. Schwartz, the chairman and chief executive of Guidepost Solutions, a compliance and security firm based in New York, Mr. Cohen is getting an overseer with long experience in monitoring corporate compliance with government investigations.

Most recently, Mr. Schwartz and his firm were appointed to oversee Deutsche Bank’s compliance with the terms of a nonprosecution agreement after an investigation by federal prosecutors into the bank’s role in a fraudulent tax shelter scheme. He also has served as a receiver for a hedge fund that had strong ties to Bernard Madoff’s fraudulent investment scheme.

Early in his career, Mr. Schwartz was the chief of the criminal division in the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan under Rudolph Giuliani.

As a compliance monitor, Mr. Schwartz, who did not respond to requests for comment, is expected to file a series of reports to federal prosecutors to ensure that Mr. Cohen’s new firm is correcting any deficiencies he finds with its procedures to prevent insider trading.

Jonathan Gasthalter, an SAC spokesman, declined to comment on Mr. Schwartz’s appointment.

In the sentencing memorandum, federal prosecutors also said that they supported a claim by the drug maker Elan to be treated as a victim of SAC’s insider trading and seek restitution of the legal expenses it paid to comply with the investigation. Last week, Elan filed a motion seeking to recoup more than $1.5 million in legal fees that it said it had paid to comply with document requests by the federal government.

In February, a former SAC portfolio manager, Mathew Martoma, was convicted of insider trading in shares of Elan and Wyeth, which were jointly developing an drug to treat Alzheimer’s disease. The accusations of insider trading in shares of Elan and Wyeth were included in the securities fraud indictment that federal prosecutors leveled against SAC last summer.

In the sentencing memorandum, prosecutors said the investigation found that SAC analysts and portfolio managers engaged in insider trading in shares of at least 20 companies from 1999 to 2010. To date, Elan is the only company that has claimed to be entitled to restitution.

In the filing, prosecutors strongly defended the $900 million portion of the settlement that is deemed a fine. It said the fine, which is not tax-deductible, is the “largest criminal fine ever imposed in an insider trading case.” The rest of the penalty is restitution the firm agreed to pay as part of its wrongful trading.

In advance of next week’s hearing, Mr. Cohen and his associates have taken a number of steps to send a message to the judge and Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, that the firm has changed and will no longer be a breeding ground for insider trading. SAC said in its presentencing memorandum that it was “deeply remorseful.”

Mr. Cohen has said the new family office, which will begin managing between $9 billion and $10 billion of mostly his own money, will remain competitive when it comes to trading stocks. But the firm â€" now with 850 employees, down from about a 1,000 last year â€" is pressing its top traders and analysts to sign two-year contracts to avoid any more defections.

Bidding War for Mobile Carrier Tests France’s Free Market

A $20 billion battle for control of a French mobile phone operator is testing the limits of President François Hollande’s willingness to let market economics work, while consumer advocates are concerned that the government’s favored solution will reduce competition.

Whatever the outcome, the winner will be one of the two billionaires vying to acquire SFR, the mobile unit of the Vivendi media and entertainment conglomerate, with 21 million cellphone subscribers. Only the mobile carrier Orange, with about 27 million subscribers, is larger.

Leading one team of bidders is the government’s favored contestant, Martin Bouygues, a scion of one of France’s richest biggest families and head of the country’s No. 3 mobile player, Bouygues Telecom, which has 11 million customers.

His rival is Patrick Drahi, an enigmatic French-Israeli entrepreneur who controls the largest French cable television operator and is seeking to break into the mobile market.

The outcome could be decided as soon as Friday, when Jean-René Fourtou, Vivendi’s chairman and chief executive, meets with his colleagues on the board to consider the rival offers.

Either deal would be “by far” the largest ever in the French telecommunications sector, according to Frederic Boulan, an analyst in the London office of Nomura, the financial services group.

From the start, Arnaud Montebourg, the outspoken Socialist Party stalwart who on Wednesday was elevated from the post of minister of industry to the broader job of minister of economy, has made it clear that he opposes the bid from Mr. Drahi.

Not only is the Mr. Drahi’s holding company, Altice, foreign (it is based in Luxembourg), but it also is financed with an extensive amount of debt that Mr. Montebourg deems dangerously high.

Mr. Montebourg has also cast suspicion on Mr. Drahi’s personal finances, and the French media reported that the Finance Ministry had begun investigating his tax status.

Seen as being on the left of the Socialist Party spectrum, Mr. Montebourg has said that the state wants to reduce the number of mobile operators to three from four, because the current market competition is so cutthroat that it endangers jobs and the companies’ ability to finance new investment. His critics say he seems less concerned about the possible anticompetitive impact of reducing the number of mobile companies.

In one sign of the government’s backing, the state-owned finance business Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations is putting up 300 million euros, or $411 million, to back support Mr. Bouygues’s offer. Two of France’s wealthiest families, Pinault and Decaux, have also rallied to his side.

For all the commotion, the deals are actually very similar. Both Bouygues Telecom and Mr. Drahi’s cable business, Altice-Numericable, are offering about $20 billion in a combination of cash and shares for SFR. And both would leave Vivendi with a significant minority stake in the merged entity.

But there are crucial differences.

A company created from a combination of Altice-Numericable and SFR would have shares traded on the market. That would enable Vivendi â€" which wants to sell SFR as quickly as possible â€" to easily unload its residual stake. And a lack of overlapping operations means the deal would be unlikely to encounter trouble with antitrust regulators.

In contrast, a combined Bouygues Telecom-SFR would not be publicly traded, making it harder for Vivendi to dispose of its stake. And there is a risk that antitrust regulators would demand significant asset sales because the two companies’ mobile operations overlap.

If Bouygues hopes to win, it will need to convince Vivendi that it can unload the minority stake, according to people close to the negotiations.

Three weeks ago, Vivendi agreed to enter exclusive talks with Mr. Drahi’s Altice-Numericable, saying its proposal was the better one. But Mr. Bouygues has not given up.

Xavier Niel, an maverick entrepreneur who shook up the French mobile market in 2012 with the introduction of Free, an ultra-low-cost mobile service, is also supporting Mr. Bouygues’s bid, although Mr. Niel’s service has damaged the profit margins of the other three players and is a major reason for the current turmoil in the mobile market.

Bouygues Telecom agreed last month to sell him Mr. Niel portions of its existing mobile network’s hardware and a number of valuable radio frequencies for 1.8 billion euros ($2.5 billion) if the deal goes through, to address antitrust concerns. That side deal would transform Mr. Niel into a much more important telecom player in France.

Both Mr. Bouygues and Mr. Drahi have kept a low profile over the last month, and both declined to comment.

Vivendi also declined to comment, beyond saying that it planned “to work in the best interest of our shareholders and employees.”

The focus on choosing between the billionaires is misplaced, according to consumer advocacy groups. Antoine Autier, a project manager at UFC-Que Choisir, France’s largest consumer organization, said the government was not paying enough attention to the concerns of mobile phone users.

“There’s a certain incoherence in the government’s thinking,” Mr. Autier said. On the one hand, “they’re saying the market needs to shrink because four operators is too many,” he said. “On the other, they’re saying prices are not going to rise for consumers.”

French mobile rates, once among the highest in Europe, are now among the lowest, thanks to Mr. Niel’s Free mobile service, Mr. Autier said. “Competition has been very beneficial for the consumer,” he said.

The open involvement of the French government in trying to shape the outcome of a big business battles between big businesses is part of a long history of such interventions, tracing from the famous 17th-century finance minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert, a strong believer in the state’s role in the creation of wealth.

Acceptance of Colbertism, which contrasts with Adam Smith’s “invisible hand,” is shared to some extent across the French political spectrum. Jacques Chirac’s center-right government in 2005 stopped a takeover of Danone, the French yogurt maker, by the American giant Pepsi. More recently, Mr. Montebourg blocked a plan by Yahoo â€" another foreign company â€" to acquire Dailymotion, a French competitor to YouTube.

In those cases, the government was worried that strategic assets would be sold to foreign companies that were little concerned with maintaining French jobs. But the current case involves two French investors.

Speaking in a radio interview last month in which he clearly signaled his preference for Mr. Bouygues’s plan, Mr. Montebourg raised concerns about Mr. Drahi’s personal finances.

“Numericable is a Luxembourg holding, his company is quoted on the Amsterdam bourse, its boss’s personal holding is in Guernsey, a tax haven of Her Majesty the Queen of England, and he is a Swiss resident,” Mr. Montebourg said. Should he return to France, Mr. Montebourg added, the tax authorities “will have some questions for him.”

Mr. Montebourg appeared to be backpedaling this week, saying on Tuesday on France Inter radio that “I don’t support Bouygues, I don’t support anyone, and I have no friends in the grande bourgeoisie française.”

Nonetheless, Mr. Boulan, of Nomura, said that Mr. Montebourg’s promotion to economy minister had added a new element to the equation, because that would theoretically give him the authority to overrule the French antitrust regulators.

Whatever happens, consumers will be watching their phone bills closely.

Citibank Executive Drafted to Help Bank Regain Fed’s Confidence

Citigroup has drafted one of its stalwarts, who was on the verge of retiring, to help the bank regain the confidence of the Federal Reserve.

Eugene M. McQuade, who last month had announced plans to retire as chief executive of Citibank, will lead the bank’s preparations for the stress test over the next year.

In a memo to employees on Thursday, Citigroup’s chief executive, Michael L. Corbat, said the Fed’s recent objections to the bank’s plans to increase its dividend were “a call to action for our firm.”

“Gene is fully empowered to do whatever is necessary, and I will devote any resource required, to ensure our next capital plan is not objected to,’’ Mr. Corbat said in the memo.

Previously, the bank’s preparation for the annual stress test was led by the bank’s finance team, run by the chief financial officer, John C. Gerspach, and the franchise risk and strategy team, headed by Brian Leach.

“Whatever the gaps between the Fed’s expectations and our performance, we need to close them,’’ Mr. Corbat said.

Those teams will now report to Mr. McQuade in preparing for next year’s stress test or during the process of resubmitting this year’s capital plan, which was rejected by the Fed. Citigroup has not said when it plans to submit a revised plan.

Last month, Citigroup announced that Mr. McQuade, who is 65 years old, would step down as chief executive of Citibank, the entity that holds 70 percent of the company’s assets and oversees its vast international business. Mr. McQuade had been nominated to serve on the bank’s board after his retirement. But the board has withdrawn his nomination so Mr. McQuade can focus on his new duties.

Mr. McQuade took over the helm of Citibank during the financial crisis and was a crucial link to regulators, the bank said.

U.S. Ordered to Return Assets Seized in Crackdown on Exported Cars

Federal authorities were dealt a setback this week in their yearlong crackdown on a growing niche business of buying luxury cars in the United States for quick resale in China at markups of as much as triple the initial purchase price.

A judge in Ohio issued a ruling on Monday that ordered the federal government to return money and cars it seized in September from a Los Angeles-based automotive export business involved in reselling newly purchased Porsches, Range Rovers and other luxury cars to wealthy buyers in overseas markets.

Federal prosecutors contend the company, Automotive Consultants of Hollywood, violated federal wire fraud laws by using foreign money to defraud American car dealers into selling them vehicles that were intended solely for domestic use. The authorities say that the approximately $1.16 million held by the company in a Wells Fargo bank account could be traced to international customers taking part in the scheme, which involved Automotive Consultants using “straw buyers” to purchase vehicles so the cars could then be quickly shipped overseas.

But Judge Sandra S. Beckwith of the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Ohio said that prosecutors had failed to produce sufficient evidence of wrongdoing by the car export company to justify the asset freeze.

“There is nothing inherently illegal about using wire transfers to move money, nor about wires from foreign sources,” Judge Beckwith wrote in a 26-page ruling. “The court must conclude that the United States has not established probable cause to believe the funds seized are the ‘proceeds’ of wire or mail fraud.”

The ruling in the Ohio case is significant because it is one of the first to challenge the legality of the seizures of vehicles being conducted by agents with the Secret Service and Department of Homeland Security. Judge Beckwith’s ruling applies only to the lawsuit filed by the Justice Department against Automotive Consultants, but it has the potential to complicate similar seizure actions that federal authorities are pursuing in other states including Florida, New York, South Carolina and Texas.

“Being the first ruling of its kind in the auto export sector, it will get attention from other courts,” said Ely Goldin, one of Automotive Consultant’s lawyers who is with the firm Fox Rothschild. “The judge was taken aback by this entire investigation.”

A year ago, the Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security began a broad crackdown on this “gray market” export business, which is estimated by some to be responsible for sending as many as 35,000 new luxury cars a year from the United States to China, Russia and other countries. The business has grown because newly purchased Porches, Range Rovers, BMWs and Mercedes can be resold to wealthy buyers in foreign countries for as much as three times the sticker price in the United States, especially for models that are in demand.

Federal authorities suspect some of the money being used by companies in America to purchase cars is coming from foreign buyers looking to launder money. The New York State attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, is looking into claims that some car salesmen in New York and New Jersey took kickbacks in return for selling luxury cars to export companies.

The origins of the government’s crackdown on luxury car exporters is unclear. Federal authorities briefed on the matter but not authorized to discuss the situation said the effort was not being coordinated by the Justice Department and was more the case of individual jurisdictions going after a business activity that appeared questionable. Advocates for the automotive export companies have claimed that the federal government is responding to complaints from the auto manufacturers who are looking to defend their turf.

One of those companies, Jaguar Land Rover North America, recently sent a six-page letter to its franchise auto dealerships that imposes a new series of penalties for selling a car to an export firm as of April 1. The six-page letter puts the burden on the dealerships in the United States to police its customers and do adequate due diligence to determine whether a buyer is a “high risk” of working for an export company.

Stuart Schorr, a spokesman for Jaguar Land Rover, said the letter was a response to the increased export activity for luxury cars sold in the country. The export companies counter that these businesses are merely taking advantage of an arbitrage in the difference between the price for luxury cars in the United States and overseas markets. These people contend that if the companies are using deception to purchase vehicles, such as using straw buyers to pretend to buy cars for themselves, it should be the auto manufacturers, and not federal prosecutors, who should pursue litigation.

Judge Beckwith, in her ruling, seemed sympathetic to the argument that these export cases should not concern the federal government. But she declined to dismiss the pending civil forfeiture lawsuit against the export company, even as she ordered the bank account unfrozen and the return of two cars that Automotive Consultants had purchased from dealerships in the Cincinnati area.

A spokesman for the United States attorney’s office for the Southern District of Ohio said the office was reviewing its options after Judge Beckwith’s ruling.

MF Global Customers to Be Paid Back in Full

Ever since the collapse of MF Global, the search for $1 billion of the brokerage firm’s customer money evoked one ominous metaphor after another, including “uphill battle” and “magical mystery tour.”

But on Thursday, the search ended with a different saying: “Checks are going in the mail.”

James W. Giddens, the court-appointed trustee overseeing the return of customer money, announced that he was sending a final round of checks to make MF Global’s customers whole. The payout, which a bankruptcy court judge initially approved late last year, capped a stunning turnaround from MF Global’s  bankruptcy filing in October 2011, when such a recovery seemed a long shot at best.

“When MF Global failed more than two years ago, few thought a way could be found to make customers whole,” Mr. Giddens, a partner at the law firm Hughes Hubbard & Reed, said in a statement. “This is the result of herculean efforts by many professionals.”

The payouts, which will be sent on Friday, provide a happy bookend to a disastrous Wall Street saga.

The problem for MF Global â€" which was run by Jon S. Corzine, formerly New Jersey’s governor â€" became apparent in the firm’s final days. In a fight for survival, MF Global improperly transferred customer money to its banks and clearinghouses, violating a cardinal rule of the financial industry.

The breach upended the lives and fortunes of MF Global’s 30,000 plus customers, a collection of farmers, small investors and hedge funds.

It also set off a flurry of congressional hearings and federal investigations, efforts that culminated last June with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission civilly charging Mr. Corzine for failing to supervise the employee who mishandled the customer money. Mr. Corzine has denied the accusations and is fighting the case.

As the authorities searched for culpability, Mr. Giddens traced the path of the missing money. And in a series of settlements with clearinghouses and banks like JPMorgan Chase - those on the receiving end of MF Global’s improper wire transfers - Mr. Giddens recovered much of the money.

But by late last year, he was still short about $233 million. Customers who traded overseas had received only 74 percent of what once sat in their accounts. MF Global customers who traded in the United States had collected 98 percent.

To recoup the remaining shortfall, Mr. Giddens petitioned Judge Martin Glenn to free up remaining funds from MF Global Inc.’s general estate. In November, Judge Glenn agreed, setting in motion the final disbursements that were announced on Thursday.

Some customers chose not to wait, deciding instead to sell their claims to hedge funds and banks for roughly 90 percent or more of face value. But to those who remained, the full reward will soon arrive in their mailbox.

“It’s been a two-and-a-half-year roller coaster ride for 38,000 customers,” said James L. Koutoulas, a Chicago hedge fund manager and lawyer who became a voice for MF Global customers whose money disappeared. “But it’s a great feeling that they have been made whole - at last.”

Pimco’s Gross, Facing Skeptical Investors, Discusses His Dead Cat

William H. Gross, the founder of the giant asset manager Pimco, is contending with skeptical investors and a choppy bond market, not to mention a stream of negative publicity after the resignation of his heir apparent.

But Mr. Gross would sooner talk about his recently deceased cat.

He devoted considerable space in his investment outlook letter on Thursday to a eulogy for his cat of 14 years, a female Maine Coon named Bob who was “one of the sweetest animals that anyone could have had.”

In the letter, titled simply “Bob,” Mr. Gross opens with a discussion of the life and times of his pet, including how he “often asked her about her recommendations for pet food stocks.” Luckily for Pimco’s customers, Mr. Gross invested instead in bonds.

“One meow for ‘no,’ two meows for a ‘you bet,’” Mr. Gross wrote. “She was less certain about interest rates, but then it never hurt to ask.”

Regular readers of the dispatches from Mr. Gross would probably not be surprised by the lengthy digression. In a February note, for example, he mused on capital punishment for pigs.

Now, however, Mr. Gross is facing an unusual level of scrutiny. In March, investors pulled a net of $3.1 billion from Pimco’s Total Return Fund, a giant bond fund that Mr. Gross manages, in the 11th-straight month of outflows, according to Morningstar. The financial research company recently lowered its grade on Pimco’s overall stewardship.

The downgrade stemmed in part from unflattering reports about Pimco surrounding the departure of Mohamed A. El-Erian, the chief executive. In February, The Wall Street Journal described a tense environment at Pimco where Mr. Gross would sometimes lash out at employees.

Mr. Gross in the new letter highlights the humanizing aspects of his personality.

“Aside from sleeping, Bob loved nothing more than to follow me from room to room making sure I was O.K.,” he wrote. “It got to be a little much at times, especially when entering and exiting the shower. I’m not a particularly shy guy, but then why was a female cat named Bob checking me out all the time?”

“Her obsession carried over to the TV, sensing when I was on CNBC and paying apt attention no less,” he continued.

After three feline-focused paragraphs, Mr. Gross finally discusses bonds in broad terms. “Although credit spreads are tight, they are not as compressed as interest rates, which are now in the process of normalization,” he wrote.

But the heart of the letter is Bob, whose name is a reference to the 1991 film “What About Bob?”

“We buried her ashes in the backyard,” Mr. Gross wrote. “Her gravestone reads just â€" ‘Bob.’ What a girl, what a kitty girl that Bob.”

A Vacant Chair for Blythe Masters

Blythe Masters’s exit from JPMorgan Chase with the sale of its physical commodities business could solve Glencore’s longstanding search for a chairman.

Ms. Masters, the brains behind the credit default swap, has the expertise to join the trading house’s board, whose all-male roll makes it an anachronism among companies in the FTSE 100-stock index. But there is one big obstacle to her leading this or any board: She has never run a company before.

Time is short. Glencore has committed to filling the chairman vacancy before its annual meeting on May 20. The group is at the stage of discussing three candidates with shareholders. It is not surprising that the search has dragged on â€" there are few people who carry all the skills for the job. The crucial personal attribute is the ability to act as both a support and a balance to the chief executive, Ivan Glasenberg, who has more influence than most bosses, because he owns an 8.3 percent stake. The candidate also needs to have the backing of British institutional shareholders. That argues for someone whose curriculum vitae is heavy with British company experience. Knowledge of commodities is also essential if the chairman is to participate fully in strategic and technical discussions.

Ms. Masters ticks some, but not all the boxes. Her main handicap is that she has not been a chief executive herself, even though she has had many senior leadership positions at JPMorgan. That would make her appointment to the role especially brave. True, the Glencore board already has some former chiefs on it - including a former Morgan Stanley boss, John Mack. But it might be hard for Ms. Masters to run the board authoritatively without comparable experience herself. Mr. Mack’s presence also dilutes the value of Ms. Masters’ financial perspective.

There is also the question of what is in it for Ms. Masters. Non-executive chairmen may be relatively well paid by the standards of British business; Tony Hayward received $742,000 as Glencore’s interim chairman and senior independent director last year. But the rewards of finance are usually much higher, and this job would put Ms. Masters on the sidelines for other lucrative opportunities.

If Glencore finds a better chairman who satisfies the multiple criteria for the role, it will be well served. And it may still have vacancies for a masterful new non-executive.

Christopher Hughes is Europe, Middle East and Africa editor for Reuters Breakingviews. For more independent commentary and analysis, visit breakingviews.com.

Brookstone Files for Bankruptcy and Plans to Sell Itself

Brookstone, the struggling retailer known for its consumer gadgets, massage chairs and other home furnishings, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Thursday, with plans to sell itself to the owner of the Spencer’s retail chain for about $147 million.

The filing caps a challenging period for Brookstone, which has laid off workers and closed stores amid a decline in sales. The company, which is privately held, said that it lost $18 million in the 13 weeks ended Sept. 28, compared with a loss of $12 million in the period a year earlier.

Brookstone now hopes that a combination with Spencer Spirit Holdings will provide a path toward profitability. Under the agreement with Spencer Spirit, Brookstone will continue to operate its stores in malls and airports, as well as its catalog, website and wholesale business, under the Brookstone brand.

The agreed purchase price includes $120 million in cash, $7.5 million in new notes and about $18.5 million of assumed liabilities, a spokeswoman for Brookstone said.

Still, it is not certain that the bankruptcy process will go as planned. Blucora, the owner of the online electronics retailer Monoprice, is considering a rival offer for Brookstone, a person briefed on the matter said on Thursday. Blucora’s interest was reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal.

Brookstone, based in Merrimack, N.H., said in its bankruptcy filing that it had up to 5,000 creditors. The company estimated that its liabilities were as high as $500 million. It had just $1 million in cash as of Sept. 28., the last time it reported earnings.

From its origins with a classified ad in Popular Mechanics magazine in 1965, Brookstone enjoyed success for decades by selling a range of consumer products through its catalogs. It opened its first retail store in 1973 and, as of last fall, operated about 260 stores in the United States and in Puerto Rico.

The current owners â€" Osim International, a publicly traded Singaporean company; Temasek Holdings, the Singapore government’s sovereign wealth fund; and J.W. Childs Associates, a private equity firm â€" bought Brookstone in 2005.

Not long afterward, its business struggled as consumers cut back on spending and online retailers posed a growing threat.

“The retail industry continues to evolve and staying ahead of the curve is critical,” James M. Speltz, Brookstone’s president and chief executive, said in a statement on Thursday. “A partnership with Spencer Spirit provides us the canvas upon which to sketch our next chapter.”

Spencer Spirit sells through two primary brands: Spencer’s, which sells humorous and racy gifts, and Spirit, which sells Halloween costumes. Both are mainstays of malls, with stores in the United States and Canada.

Brookstone, as it goes through a reorganization, is receiving legal advice from K&L Gates and financial advice from Deloitte, while Jefferies is advising on its sale. Spencer Spirit is being advised by the law firm Cole Schotz and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Liberty Media to Sell Most of Its Stake in Barnes & Noble

Nearly three years ago, Liberty Media wanted to buy all of Barnes & Noble, before settling for a big stake. Now it appears that the media conglomerate has had enough.

Liberty announced on Thursday that it would divest the vast majority of its stake in the struggling bookseller through private sales of its holdings. But it added that it would hold onto 10 percent of its initial $204 million investment, which gave it a roughly 17 percent stake.

Investors were disappointment by the move and the stock slid more than 10 percent on Thursday morning, trading at around $19.79 a share.

The sale removes one of Barnes & Noble’s major backers as the company tries to navigate the changing landscape for books and media. Its Nook business, once considered its brightest hope, has instead sputtered, with sales dropping more than 50 percent in the most recent fiscal quarter from a year ago.

Its traditional bookstores have remained more stable, though core comparable store sales are drifting downward.

Now Liberty has all but sold its bet on Barnes & Noble. Perhaps it isn’t surprising: the media concern’s chairman, John C. Malone, once admitted that its move was a bit of an outlier for his company.

“It would be a bit of a flier for us, on whether or not Barnes & Noble can play competitively with the likes of Apple and Amazon in the digital transformation,” he told DealBook at the Allen & Company media conference in July of 2011, before his conglomerate agreed to invest in the bookseller.

Both Liberty and Barnes & Noble described the move on Thursday as one that would give the embattled retailer more room to plot its future. When the stock sales close on Tuesday, Liberty will lose the right to keep two representatives on the Barnes & Noble board. Greg Maffei, the conglomerate’s chief executive, will step down, though Mark Carleton, a senior vice president, will stay on as a director.

“By reducing our preferred position and eliminating some of our related rights, Barnes & Noble will gain greater flexibility to accomplish their strategic objectives,” Mr. Maffei said in a statement.

Leonard Riggio, Barnes & Noble’s chairman, added that while Liberty has been a strong supporter of the retailer, the company will now have a greater ability to pursue unstated “various strategic options.”

Other investors in the bookseller were much less sanguine about the move. Shares in Barnes & Noble dropped nearly 10 percent in early-morning trading, to $19.95 each.

Shadows Over Citigroup

Federal authorities have opened a criminal investigation into a recent $400 million fraud involving Citigroup’s Mexican unit, according to people briefed on the matter, one of a handful of government inquiries looming over the giant bank, Ben Protess and Michael Corkery write in DealBook. The investigation, overseen by the F.B.I. and prosecutors from the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan, is focusing in part on whether holes in the bank’s internal controls contributed to the fraud in Mexico.

The decision by the F.B.I. and prosecutors to open a formal investigation, a move that has not been previously reported, has now drawn a faraway crime to Citigroup’s doorstep and represents yet another setback for the bank. Last week, the Federal Reserve rejected Citigroup’s plan to increase its dividend, embarrassing the bank and raising questions about the reliability of its financial projections.

The scrutiny coincides with Citigroup’s recent announcement that it faces a separate investigation from federal prosecutors in Massachusetts. Prosecutors in that case are examining whether the bank lacked proper safeguards against clients laundering money, stemming from their suspicion that drug money was flowing through an account at the bank. But the government scrutiny could be short-lived. Citigroup has not been accused of wrongdoing, and prosecutors might ultimately close the cases without extracting fines or imposing charges.

ANOTHER DEPARTURE FOR JPMORGAN  |  Blythe Masters, the head of JPMorgan Chase’s giant commodities unit, is leaving the bank, underscoring that Chase, the nation’s largest bank, is not immune to the boom and bust cycles that periodically sweep through Wall Street, Jessica Silver-Greenberg writes in DealBook. The move comes as the bank is selling its physical commodities business, which trades hard assets, to the Mercuria Energy Group of Switzerland for $3.5 billion in cash.

JPMorgan’s partial retreat from the commodities business is particularly noteworthy because the bank, under Ms. Masters, made ambitious efforts to increase its presence in commodities after the financial crisis. New regulations, greater competition and relatively stable commodities prices have combined in recent years to make the business far less profitable for big banks, Ms. Silver-Greenberg writes.

Since joining the firm in 1991 after college, Ms. Masters has held several roles, including chief financial officer of the investment bank. She took over the commodities unit in 2007, but came under scrutiny there, with investigators finding that JPMorgan had engaged in illegal trading in the California and Michigan electricity markets. Last week, Michael J. Cavanagh , a top lieutenant to the bank’s chief executive, Jamie Dimon, said he would leave the bank for the Carlyle group, a private equity company.

What Ms. Masters will do with her free time was not disclosed, but “it’s a good bet that she will be spending some of it with horses,” William Alden writes in DealBook. In addition to running JPMorgan’s commodities business, Ms. Masters occasionally competes in horse shows and has enjoyed success recently in her equestrian pursuits.

THE NEXT WALL STREET?  |  “There isn’t much to see in Qianhai today except for a tract of muddy, mostly undeveloped land that has been reclaimed from the sea in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, near the border with Hong Kong,” Neil Gough writes in DealBook. But officials there envision that, six years from now, Qianhai will be a thriving, international finance district in Shenzhen that will be China’s answer to Wall Street, the City of London or Hong Kong’s Central District.

The local government anticipates a working population of 650,000 people generating annual gross domestic product of around $25 billion in Qianhai by 2020 â€" plans that call for total investment of about $65 billion. “For China, the challenge is fundamental; gently easing the state’s grip on the financial system after decades of heavy-handed control. It’s a bold blueprint, but, so far, not much more than that,” Mr. Gough writes.

Qianhai is one of more than 10 newly created or proposed special zones where China plans to experiment with a new wave of financial overhauls. Mr. Gough writes: “The changes, first outlined in November by President Xi Jinping, serve as a recognition of the dangerous imbalances created by the investment-led growth model that has powered China since the financial crisis. Policy makers want to deflate these risks by reining in the nation’s reliance on cheap debt, modernizing the state-controlled financial system and refocusing the economy on domestic consumption.”

ON THE AGENDA  |  The Challenger job cut report is out at 7:30 a.m. The Gallup payroll to population report comes out at 8:30 a.m. International trade data for February is out at 8:30 a.m. Weekly jobless claims are released at 8:30 a.m. The ISM nonmanufacturing index is out at 10 a.m. Eric T. Schneiderman, the New York State attorney general, is on CNBC at 3:30 p.m. European Central Bank officials meet in Frankfurt to set monetary policy.

A TALE OF JUSTICE DENIED  |  In a settlement with Kenneth D. Lewis, the former Bank of America chief, “regulators put on a master class in how to take a strong case and render it weak,” Jesse Eisinger writes in The Trade column. Mr. Lewis received a modest penalty, paid for by his former employer, and a temporary ban from an industry he is no longer a part of.

To understand the case involves a trip down memory lane. As the world economy imploded in the middle of September 2008, Bank of America rushed into another acquisition, taking over Merrill Lynch, which was failing and facing the same short-term funding run that would have collapsed all of the investment banks had it not been for the government’s intervention. But as the two banks moved to finalize the merger in the fourth quarter of 2008, “Merrill bled billions while paying huge bonuses to its executives,” Mr. Eisinger writes.

The case against Bank of America contended that the bank misled its shareholders and the public about the losses and the bonuses by failing to disclose them before shareholders voted on the merger. The case seemed strong, but a number of factors made it especially difficult. And the outcome, Mr. Eisinger writes, left the public, with “as much justice as we have come to expect.”

HOW TO EXPLAIN BITCOIN TO YOUR MOM  |  Have questions about how virtual currencies work? The comic artist Rami Niemi and Rachel Abrams of DealBook have all the answers.

 

Mergers & Acquisitions »

Vivendi Blocks Activist Group From Accessing Documents in SFR Sale  |  The French media conglomerate said an association representing the rights of minority shareholders had sent a bailiff to Vivendi’s offices, but that the bailiff was denied access.
DealBook »

Small Banks Look to Sell Themselves as Regulations Take Toll  |  More small banks are selling themselves, with executives saying the increasing regulatory burden was a factor in their decisions, The Wall Street Journal writes.
WALL STREET JOURNAL

Minneapolis Newspaper Gets a New Life  |  With his billionaire résumé as a former state legislator, an owner of a sports team and a captain of industry, Glen Taylor fits the mold of trophy seeker, David Carr writes in The New York Times. But in signing a letter of intent to purchase The Star Tribune in Minneapolis from its private equity backers, Mr. Taylor said the newspaper was well run and he had no desire to be involved in its day-to-day operations.
NEW YORK TIMES

Baxter to Acquire Chatham Therapeutics  |  Baxter International has agreed to buy Chatham Therapeutics, which has a gene therapy platform that focuses on hemophilia treatments, for $70 million upfront, plus potential milestone payments, The Wall Street Journal reports.
WALL STREET JOURNAL

INVESTMENT BANKING »

Credit Suisse Takes New Charge Related to U.S. Tax Inquiry  |  The Swiss bank revised its fourth-quarter results again to reflect an additional charge of 468 million Swiss francs, or about $528 million, related to an ongoing investigation into unreported accounts held by Americans.
DealBook »

Handler, Leucadia’s Chief, Takes Pay Cut in New Role  |  Richard B. Handler was one of the better paid chief executives on Wall Street when he ran the Jefferies Group. Now, after the Leucadia National Corporation acquired Jefferies, his compensation has fallen by more than 80 percent.
DealBook »

R.B.S. Plans to Shut 44 Branches  |  The Royal Bank of Scotland said on Wednesday that it would close 44 branches in Britain, Reuters writes. The bank announced in February that it planned to cut costs by 5.3 billion pounds over the next three or four years.
REUTERS

High-Frequency Trading May Be Too Efficient  |  “If for nothing else, IEX and other venues that try to limit ‘predatory’ high-frequency trading are good for making fundamental investors feel like there’s a safe place for them â€" and for encouraging them to keep doing their jobs. The efficiency of the markets may depend on it,” Matt Levine writes in Bloomberg View.
BLOOMBERG VIEW

PRIVATE EQUITY »

Lone Star Funds to Buy DFC Global  |  DFC Global, which offers alternative financial services, announced on Wednesday that it had agreed to be acquired by the private equity firm Lone Star Funds for about $367 million, The Wall Street Journal writes.
WALL STREET JOURNAL

Freeman Spogli and Investcorp to Buy Umbrella Marketer  |  The buyout firm Freeman Spogli and the investment company Investcorp, which is based in Bahrain, have agreed to acquire the Totes Isotoner Corporation, the world’s biggest marketer of umbrellas, gloves and rainwear, Reuters reports, citing unidentified people familiar with the situation.
REUTERS

Blackstone in Talks to Sell Office Properties  |  The Blackstone Group is in talks to sell six prime office properties in the Boston area for about $2.5 billion, Bloomberg News writes, citing an unidentified person familiar with the situation.
BLOOMBERG NEWS

HEDGE FUNDS »

Investcorp Joins Rush to Invest in European Distressed Debt  |  The hedge fund arm of Investcorp, the investment firm based in Bahrain, is partnering with the hedge fund Eyck Capital Management to look for opportunities to scoop up European companies slowly emerging from a continentwide financial crisis.
DealBook »

Ackman’s Pershing Square Fell 0.6% in March  |  William A. Ackman’s flagship Pershing Square hedge fund fell 0.6 percent in March, The Wall Street Journal writes. Declines in the shares of the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac hurt the fund’s performance.
WALL STREET JOURNAL

Judge Dismisses Suit Against Madoff Feeder Fund  |  A New York State judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by an investor in a fund managed by Tremont Group Holdings, one of the largest feeders of funds into Bernard L. Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, Reuters reports. The 2009 lawsuit accused Tremont of investing $3.3 billion with Mr. Madoff for more than a decade without investigating “red flags” that he never bought or sold securities.
REUTERS

Former Bankers Plan to Start London Hedge Fund  |  The former global head of equity finance at JPMorgan Chase and three other bankers have started a London hedge fund to profit from Europe’s economic recovery, Bloomberg News writes.
BLOOMBERG NEWS

I.P.O./OFFERINGS »

Just Eat, an Online Takeaway Service, Raises $600 Million in I.P.O.  |  The food ordering service, similar to GrubHub, priced its offering at 260 pence a share, giving it a market capitalization of £1.47 billion, or $2.44 billion. GrubHub is planning its own I.P.O. this year in New York.
DealBook »

Chinese Tech Company Kingsoft Seeks U.S. Listing for Mobile Subsidiary  |  The Hong Kong-listed software company has filed for an initial public offering for its mobile subsidiary in the United States amid a number of successful Chinese tech offerings there.
DealBook »

High-Frequency Trading Firm Virtu Is Said to Delay I.P.O.  |  Virtu Financial has decided to postpone its initial public offering by at least a week, a move that comes as high-frequency trading firms have been put in the spotlight by Michael Lewis’s new book, “Flash Boys.”
DealBook »

Reasons for Virtu to Remain Private  |  Amid the hullabaloo about high-frequency trading, a delay to an initial public offering would help protect Virtu’s estimated valuation of more than $3.5 billion, writes Richard Beales of Reuters Breakingviews.
DealBook »

VENTURE CAPITAL »

Lyft Raises $250 Million From Alibaba, Third Point and Others  |  Lyft, the ride-sharing start-up, said it had raised $250 million from a group that includes the Chinese e-commerce titan Alibaba Group and the investment firm Third Point.
DealBook »

Venture Capital’s Need for Secrecy Collides With Public’s Right to Know  |  A ruling by a California state court allows venture capital firms to control the amount of information they disclose. But is it the best solution? Probably not, writes Jonathan Axelrad, a partner at Goodwin Procter, in the Another View column.
DealBook »

If You Like Immersion, You’ll Love This Reality  |  Jeremy Bailenson, who directs Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, says virtual reality is the natural extension of every major technology being used today, Farhad Manjoo writes in the State of the Art column.
NEW YORK TIMES

Diller Says Aereo’s Survival Depends on Justices’ Decision  |  With crucial Supreme Court arguments over the legality of Aereo scheduled for later this month, one of the streaming service’s major investors, Barry Diller, said on Wednesday that its viability as a business was riding on the decision, The New York Times reports.
NEW YORK TIMES

LEGAL/REGULATORY »

Unit of Deutsche Börse Faces U.S. Criminal Inquiry  |  Clearstream, Deutsche Börse’s post-trading services and settlement business, is cooperating with what it called an “early stage” inquiry into potential violations of money laundering laws and sanctions against Iran.
DealBook »

Giving a Debtor a Big Club Against Lenders  |  A federal district court’s view on a sale of a piece of a loan is problematic, writes Stephen J. Lubben in the In Debt column.
DealBook »

G.M. Chief Faces Harsher Tone at Second Hearing  |  Setting the tone for Wednesday’s questioning of Mary T. Barra, the chief of General Motors, Senator Claire McCaskill said the company had a “culture of cover-up” that discouraged quick action to fix a defective part, The New York Times reports.
NEW YORK TIMES

March Hiring Data Shows a Spring Thaw  |  Companies stepped up hiring in March for a second month, offering fresh evidence that the American economy was regaining momentum after a weather-driven lull over the winter.
REUTERS

The Perpetual Bubble Economy  |  Absent extraordinary intervention in the economy through fiscal policy, monetary policy or both â€" growth and employment will prove lackluster, according to a theory developed by Lawrence H. Summers, the former Treasury secretary and prominent public intellectual, the Economix blog reports.
NEW YORK TIMES ECONOMIX

China Leans Toward More Stimulus Measures  |  As the economy shows signs of further slowing, government officials are making clear their willingness to step in, The New York Times writes.
NEW YORK TIMES

Investcorp Joins Rush to Invest in European Distressed Debt

Investcorp, the Bahrain based investment firm, made a splash investing in European luxury brands like Gucci and George Jensen.

Now, it is making a play for distressed investments by partnering with the hedge fund Eyck Capital Management.

Through its $5 billion hedge fund arm, Investcorp has agreed to put $50 million to $100 million of capital behind a fund started by Khing Oei, a former managing principal at Halcyon and founder of Eyck Capital.

Investcorp is joining many other hedge funds and private equity firms looking for opportunities to scoop up European companies slowly emerging from a continent-wide financial crisis.

The amount of money deployed to the region is eye-popping: This year alone, private equity has raised $1.7 billion for European distressed funds, while hedge funds focused on European distressed debt manage a total of $57.2 billion of investor money, according to data from Preqin.

“We think that there are tremendous opportunities in Europe right now,” says Lionel Erdely, chief investment officer of Investcorp’s hedge fund arm. Recent changes to the regulatory landscape, have forced banks to sell assets like real estate and corporate loan portfolios in order hold more cash on their balance sheets.

In Spain, several hedge funds and private equity firms, including Blackstone and Apollo Global Management, have competed to buy everything from hotels to real estate. Marathon Asset Management and Third Point have bought non performing loans and mortgage-backed securities in countries ranging from Germany to Greece.

But some critics argue that Europe has become overcrowded, with investors armed with lots of cash and still too few opportunities to put their money to work. At one recent auction by a Spanish bank, 30 bidders competed for one asset, according to Mr. Khing.

“It’s hard to create an edge there,” he says, adding: ” You need a lot of patience and that space has been busy.”

Mr. Khing has focused instead on situations where information is harder to obtain. Last year, Eyck sold insurance on bonds for Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the world’s oldest bank. At the time investors were panicked the bank would collapse. Eyck spotted an opportunity in the fine print (in Italian) on the bonds and ended up with a rare windfall that leaves some investors cold.

“In my mind, the recovery in Europe is not super clear,” says Mr. Oei. “I do think it’s very important to pick your battles.”

Credit Suisse Takes New Legal Provision Related to U.S. Tax Inquiry

LONDON - The legal costs keep piling up for Credit Suisse.

On Thursday, the Swiss bank revised its results again to reflect an additional charge of 468 million Swiss francs, or about $527.6 million, in increased legal provisions primarily related to a continuing investigation into Americans who secretly held assets in Swiss accounts.

As a result, Credit Suisse reported a fourth-quarter loss of 476 million francs.

In February, the bank initially reported a profit of 267 million francs for the last three months of 2013. Its quarterly results initially reflected 514 million francs in legal provisions related to mortgage litigation and the tax inquiry.

In recent weeks, however, the bank has revised its results downward to reflect an $885 million settlement to resolve claims that it had sold questionable loans to the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the run-up to the financial crisis, and has now made additional provisions related to the tax investigation.

The latest provision comes on the heels of a two-year investigation by the United States, which found that Credit Suisse had actively helped American citizens hide billions of dollars from the tax authorities.

Credit Suisse executives, including Brady W. Dougan, the chief executive, were questioned on the findings at a Senate committee hearing in Washington in February.

The United States Department of Justice is investigating more than a dozen Swiss financial institutions and has prosecuted dozens of Americans who failed to pay taxes on income-generating accounts they held in Switzerland and had not disclosed to the American government. A Credit Suisse spokesman declined to comment Thursday on whether a settlement with Washington was close.

The banks have been reluctant to share client information for fear of breaching bank secrecy laws in Switzerland.

In 2009, the Swiss bank UBS paid a $780 million fine and entered a deferred-prosecution agreement with the United States government. As part of the agreement, it turned over the names of more than 4,000 Americans with UBS accounts.

Last year, Wegelin & Co., the oldest bank in Switzerland, pleaded guilty to a criminal conspiracy charge and was ordered to pay $74 million. Wegelin, which was founded in 1741, has sold off its assets and plans to close its doors once it resolves legal issues related to the American investigation.

For 2013, Credit Suisse reported net income of 2.33 billion francs, compared with 1.35 billion francs a year earlier.

Mr. Dougan remained the highest paid executive at Credit Suisse in 2013, with a 26 percent increase in total compensation,  to 9.79 million francs. He received total compensation of 7.77 million francs in 2012.

Just Eat, an Online Takeaway Service, Raises $600 Million in I.P.O.

LONDON - Just Eat, an online food ordering service, said on Thursday that it had raised 360.1 million pounds, or almost $600 million, in its initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange.

The service, which allow users to order food from local takeout restaurants via websites or apps, priced its offering at 260 pence a share, giving it a market capitalization of £1.47 billion. It is similar to GrubHub in the United States, which is planning its own I.P.O. this year in New York.

Just Eat will receive about £100 million of the proceeds, with the rest going to its backers who sold shares in the I.P.O. The company floated about 24.6 percent of its capital in the offering.

Shares of Just Eat rose about 6.1 percent to 275.79 pence early Thursday in conditional trading on the London Stock Exchange.

“We look forward to life as a listed company as we join the market through the LSE’s High Growth Segment and continue expanding our leading online platform for takeaway food,” David Buttress, chief executive of Just Eat, said in a statement.

Just Eat, which operates in 13 countries including Britain, Brazil, France and India, is the first major listing in Britain, rather than in the United States, by a London technology company.

Poundland, a discount retailer that sells everything for £1 or less; Pets at Home, a pet supplies retailer; and Brit, a specialty insurer, all listed their shares in London last month.

The Silicon Valley venture capital firms Greylock Partners and Redpoint Ventures, and the European private equity firm Vitruvian Partners, were among Just Eat’s existing stockholders who sold shares in the offering.

Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase acted as joint underwriters on the offering.

Vivendi Blocks Activist Group From Accessing Documents in SFR Sale

LONDON - The fight for Vivendi’s cellular phone unit just keeps getting stranger.

Vivendi, a French media conglomerate, said late Wednesday that it had blocked an attempt by a shareholder activist group to access documents related to the sale of SFR, its mobile phone unit.

Colette Neuville, who heads an association representing the rights of minority shareholders, sent a bailiff to Vivendi’s offices on Wednesday in hopes of accessing documents related to the continuing sale negotiations, Vivendi said, adding that the bailiff had been denied access.

“After considering the extravagant nature of this procedure, Vivendi’s lawyers have decided to oppose this intrusion and will apply to a judge for a summary judgment,” the company said in a statement.

Last month, Vivendi entered into a three-week exclusive negotiation period with Altice, a cable and mobile service provider based in Luxembourg, for SFR after it weighed earlier bids from Altice and Bouygues. The exclusive window runs through Friday.

But, Bouygues, which owns Bouygues Telecom, the third-largest French mobile operator after Orange and SFT, has refused to go away. It increased its bid on March 20 and has since said that both its revised bid and its original bid, in which it would hold a smaller percentage of SFR’s stock, remained valid.

Bouygues would reshape the French telecommunications landscape by combining two of the four largest mobile providers. The company has committed to pay a breakup fee of 500 million euros, or about $690 million, if regulators were to reject the deal or impose untenable conditions on the transaction.

The attempt to access sale documents came as the Autorité des Marchés Financiers, the French regulator of financial markets, had called for more transparency in the negotiations, including in disclosing potential breakup fees.

Last week, the French regulator said that Altice, Vivendi and Bouygues, as public companies, were obligated to provide “exact, precise and sincere” information to the market, even if SFR, a nonlisted company, was not subject to tender offer rules in France.

The bidding war has pitted Martin Bouygues, the billionaire who runs the diversified industrial group that bears his name, against the French entrepreneur Patrick Drahi, who since 2002 has built Altice into a global operation with cable and cellphone assets in Europe and the Caribbean.

The sale of SFR is part of Vivendi’s plan to increase its capital reserves and to expand its existing media assets, like the pay-television provider Canal Plus. Vivendi had previously considered its own initial public offering for SFR.

On March 14, Vivendi said that Altice had offered to pay €11.75 billion and to give Vivendi a 32 percent stake in Altice’s Numericable, which would be combined with SFR. It also provided Vivendi with predetermined exit conditions, Vivendi said.

A week later, Bouygues said that it had increased the cash portion of its offer by €1.85 billion, to €13.15 billion. The new offer, if accepted, would give Bouygues a 67 percent stake in SFR.

Chinese Tech Company Kingsoft Seeks U.S. Listing for Mobile Subsidiary

HONG KONG â€" The latest Chinese technology company to seek a stock market listing in the United States comes with heavyweight backers and is a rare attempt at an offering by a parent company already listed in Hong Kong.

On Thursday, Kingsoft Corporation, a Chinese software company listed in Hong Kong, announced that its subsidiary, Cheetah Mobile, had filed for an initial public offering in the United States.

Cheetah, which develops Internet security software, said in a filing on Wednesday with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission that it may seek to raise $300 million, a figure that may change and was disclosed for the purpose of calculating registration fees. Cheetah did not indicate whether it planned to list on the New York Stock Exchange or the Nasdaq.

Coming amid a number of tremendously successful Chinese technology I.P.O.s in the United States, Cheetah’s planned offering stands out on several fronts. The company’s biggest backers are Lei Jun â€" a billionaire software and smartphone entrepreneur who has been known to style himself after Steven P. Jobs, the founder of Apple â€" and Tencent, a Chinese online video game and social networking company with a market value of about $130 billion.

It is also uncommon for a company listed in Hong Kong to seek a new listing for a business in the United States. In doing so, Cheetah plans to adopt a two-tiered shareholding structure that would give the company’s founders a disproportionate say over the way the company is run.

While Hong Kong’s stock market regulators have frowned on such structures, similar arrangements are common in the United States, especially among technology companies such as Google, which is creating a new class of shares with no voting rights â€" or Facebook. Partly as a result of this stance, Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant, has chosen the United States over Hong Kong for an I.P.O. that analysts expect will surpass Facebook’s $16 billion offering two years ago.

Cheetah has developed a number of mobile apps and computer programs that block viruses, remove unwanted files and generally improve security. It boasted a total of 329.5 million monthly active users as of December. Last year, it made a profit of 62 million renminbi, or about $10 million, on revenue of 750 million renminbi.

Cheetah’s I.P.O. consists of new shares representing a 15 percent stake. Based on the preliminary $300 million deal size, the offering would value the company at $2 billion â€" or about 200 times last year’s earnings.

Kingsoft, whose stake in Cheetah is to be diluted to 47 percent from 54 percent after the sale, trades in Hong Kong at about 42 times its historical earnings and has a market value of just under $5 billion.

Mr. Lei, whose separate smartphone business, Xiaomi, is targeting sales of 60 million units this year and 100 million next year, personally owns about 27 percent of Kingsoft, meaning he stands to make a significant profit if the Cheetah I.P.O. goes ahead as planned. So too would Tencent, which began investing in Cheetah in 2011 and owns an 18 percent stake.

Shares in Kingsoft have rallied, partly in anticipation of the planned sale of Cheetah. The stock has nearly quadrupled over the past 12 months and is up 40 percent so far this year.

Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan and Credit Suisse are the main underwriters of the deal.