Goldman, BoA, and CSFB were leads in the IPO. Thomas H. Lee Partners has been the majority equity owner. Goldman was hired as financial adviser yesterday. They are all "smart money" as far as RFX is goes. Why hasn't one of them stepped forward and backed up the firm financially, thereby stemming client defections, and preserving the value of the franchise? The silence to date is not encouraging.
Goldman, was the biggest in futures based on Selected FCM Financial Data repored back in Aug 05 ... Now I doubt they will, assuming Man and Refco LLC join forces!
Very cool story! Let's see, VN was short puts, so Refco must have bid them with great haste. So implieds popped on those particular puts causing a dimple on the smile. Your friend the MM spotted that in a jiffy, took the short vol position and prayed for the market to quieten down.
Man & RefcoLLC combined client equity will be much higher then those of CITIGROUP GLOBAL MARKETS INC JP MORGAN FUTURES INC UBS SECURITIES LLC MERRILL LYNCH PIERCE FENNER & SMITH FIMAT USA LLC CALYON FINANCIAL INC and rightly so! Man being English company isn't good news for those heavy lifter American companies mentioned above! Interesting mix and a serious competitor going forward
And this new combined entity will be the biggest US player in terms of clearing and client accounts pushing Goldmans to 2nd place MAN + REFCO LLC will be bigger then UBS SECURITIES LLC & UBS FINANCIAL SERVICES INC combined OUCH!!! PRICE WAR is just beginning and I see more clients moving their funds to this new more stronger entity soon and this would force smaller players to consolidate quicker then you think e.g. RJ OBRIEN, CARGIL and the likes of PRUDENTIAL shedding off their futures trading operations quicker then you think and so forth GO REFCO GO and to all blood suckers: YOU DESERVE TO DIE
http://www.mangroupplc.com/investor/investors_finHighlight.cfm MAN GROUPâS CLIENTS The Man Group has both an institutional and retail client base. Of total funds under management, Man Investments has approximately 60% held on behalf of private investors with the remainder coming from institutional funds. In contrast, Man Financial has approximately 70% of its business generated through institutional clients with the remainder of its business from private client dealings. The Man Group has a geographically diversified client base although Man Investments sees particular opportunity for future growth within the US and has built a team to focus on this region. How can one expand quickly into US markets and dominate it? Nice!!! Brief Description: Man Group Plc (Man) .... ... During the fiscal year ended March 31, 2005 (fiscal 2005), the private investor sales in Europe, Asia Pacific, Americas and Middles East contributed 39%, 42%, 13% and 6%, respectively. http://today.reuters.com/stocks/overview.aspx?symbol=EMG.L
10/13/2005 Victor Niederhoffer: A Note on Refco Many people have told me that they heard my name mentioned in this or that medium in conjunction with the Refco debacle. I have not spoken to any media nor have I been called, except that our Treasurer was asked to comment by the Financial Times. Apparently the way it works is that reporters use Google or remember Refco and trouble and find me mentioned in 1997 along with receivables. They mention my name as a stray fact in their story. Once it hits one newspaper or Web site, all the others pick up on the connection and embellish it. My adversaries expand it, and the rumor mill starts working, constantly expanding it, until the innuendo is that I have some proximate or intimate relation with the main story. I have found that often when there is a big squeeze in the market -- e.g., squeezes in gold, squeezes in oil, squeezes in bonds -- our name is mentioned along with others as a likely suspect. I haven't traded any of those markets except in lots of five or 10 once or twice in eight years. Ordinarily I like it that whenever there's a big loss someone associates it with me, as it keeps my adversaries hopeful and extended. That's why I always mention at least once a week my difficulties in 1997 when my fund went under in connection with the Thailand meltdown and the closing of the US market. That event happened eight years ago, on Oct. 27, 1997. Two days after it happened, Refco and my firm mutually resolved all claims present, past and future in a fair, straightforward manner. We received a full release from Refco on that date, and gave them a full release also. We were represented by a major law firm, Rosenman & Colin. The releases between Refco and me were scrutinized by several regulatory authorities at the time and thereafter. There were no loose ends, accommodations or outstanding receivables or debts of any kind between us, except as described below: Refco, in the heat of the moment, liquidated my personal options positions on Oct. 28, 1997, at highly unfavorable prices. It caused a loss of some $2 million above my equity there. I agreed to pay that back to them, as part of our mutual releases, in installments over the next year as I sold off assets, and I did pay them back in full within a year. I paid all my debts in full, and I was given no accommodations by anyone. In fact, I spent a few millions of my own to get money back for my clients, which I turned entirely over to them. (No one has ever done anything like that for me when I lost money with them.) I had a substantial net worth at the time the fund closed, and was never close to insolvency or bankruptcy as my adversaries like to imply. I notice on Refco's balance sheet that the firm has $77 billion in assets, $66 billion in debt and shareholders' equity of $165 million. I have no idea whatsoever how they have treated their transactions or errors in transactions with me or any other person or entity or hedge fund in the eight years subsequent to 1997, but I know that they negotiated a very stern and businesslike deal with us at that time., with no accommodations or loose ends of any kind. I have had no contact with Refco for approximately seven years, except that about six years ago I phoned Phil Bennett, who always behaved very responsibly and in a most straightforward fashion in all his dealings with me, to ask how he was doing. He wasn't in and he didn't return my call. In addition, in 1998 we had a few meetings with Refco in connection with a lawsuit we jointly brought as plaintiffs against certain parties we felt had damaged us in connection with the closing of the CME that day, which was amicably settled a few years later without further contact with them. Neither my firm nor I have any accounts with Refco. I have not spoken with Phil Bennett for seven years. Neither I, nor my firm, nor anyone associated with me has had any loans or financial dealings of any kind with Refco in seven years. PS. Always part of rumors about me is the hope that some dead or decaying flesh will be left exposed to eat. My firm, Manchester Trading, has served as trading adviser to the well-regarded Matador Fund for the last four years. That fund's performance is available through all the rating services, including TASS, MAR, HFN, HFR and Bloomberg. PPS. I have not shown this letter to counsel before publishing it, nor do I intend to as I would like without equivocation to set the record straight. It's bad enough that I can't respond when my critics say that nothing I say in my blog or in my books makes sense because I don't know how to trade, as it's not cricket to refer to my performance without a full disclosure statement to qualified investors only. I have received much abuse for the performance and selection of trades of my fund during 1997. Indeed, before a firm associated with my more illustrious and much larger colleague from the University of Chicago, suffered a similar fate to mine, but did receive accommodations and assistance, I was a poster boy. But these latest rumors and innuendoes are too much to just ignore as if there is any element of truth to them. PPPS. It's possible that I may have inadvertently been off here by a day or two on dates, or a percent or two in amount. That is counterbalanced by the very tight, fair and limited transaction that Refco negotiated with us, and that we paid in full.
Goldman has had it's share of getting snuckered also. Do any of you remember Robert Maxwell? Maxwell robbed the pension funds of his companys, borrowed monies from Goldie. When Goldie called the loans in maxwell had used the collateral to secure more than a few loans....:eek: When the gig was up for Maxwell, he went for a cruise on his yacht, had a final cocktail and slid his fat bod into the drink as shark bait...:eek: Goldie paid out tons of cash on that deal. but the truth really be known, the investment banking, brokerage etc business of all about fees and safety of investers is not in the first paragraph of theirs or any one elses "MISSION STATEMENT". When it comes to someone else playing with your money, be cautious for sure, as a futures trader i always had a minimum of two accounts and withdrew monies at certain levels. Like sex, have fun, but be careful... One reason why i trade futures instead of stocks is quite simple: What the reports, sayings, etc from the ceo, cfo, coo etc is 99% bull. "The news is always great, until it is not" Case in point REFCO, i was myself dumbfounded when Refco bought up all those "RETAIL" discount brokers etc. now it is quite clear, they were pumping up the revenue side of the business to take a private company public. Goldie and others only saw "FEES", lots of fees.
I suspect that maybe Refco and their top guy(s) may have been "set up". In other words, maybe some competitor or other entity somehow figured out a way to get these guys to do something foolish as sort of a trap and then wham! A few other people had to be knowledgeable participants/advisors in this scheme. But it appears to me that somebody designed it on purpose just to obliterate Refco and likely eliminate a competitor. Isn't Goldman, their IPO underwriter, also a competitor? Maybe some other behind-the-scene broker/dealer?