Hedgefund spreading malicious rumors trying to harm Jefferies...

To Our Clients, Shareholders, Bondholders, Employees and Friends:
We are writing so that every one of our key constituencies receive the facts and reality directly
from us, instead of being misled by half-truths, false rumors and lies being disseminated with
malice by a group whose interests are absolutely opposed to yours and ours. With the exception
of facts that are referenced as of today, the information summarized below is further detailed in
our Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended August 31, 2011, filed with the Securities and
Exchange Commission and available on our website.

Malicious Lies and False Rumors.

Throughout the month of November, Jefferies has been
barraged by a group of people maliciously spreading rumors, half-truths and outright lies through
every means possible, including calling analysts and security holders, as well as using the mass
media in an effort to amplify and legitimize their efforts. Last week, a representative of a hedge
fund, who we understand has been spreading false rumors about Jefferies, sent us a letter with a series of questions that for the most part show what we must presume is an intentional
misreading of our public filings to try to support these rumors. All these folks seem to be trying
to take advantage of the MF Global bankruptcy and the volatile market environment with a view
to harming Jefferies and all of us, presumably for personal gain. With the facts and truth on our
side, we have responded to all this directly and completely. Fortunately, those who take the time
to understand and truly analyze the facts are reaching the right conclusion. While it may be
necessary for us to continue to respond to these ill-conceived attacks, we fortunately can do so
on a firm foundation and with confidence in our funding and business model.
All this being said, for the sake of all of our key constituencies, we are going to address many of
the rumors and falsehoods being maliciously circulated:
1. Lies about Our Inventory of Sovereign Debt of Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and
Spain: We listed every CUSIP number and put each position by country and maturity on
the internet for all to see. We said we have no CDS, exotics or other derivative credit
hedge against this inventory, and thus no counterparty risk to the netting of our
positions. We then sold about half our inventory in the next few hours of trading, with
virtually no bottom line impact. By now, everyone should recognize Jefferies is the firm
with the least exposure to the sovereign debt of Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain
of all of our major competitors. But, when we proved the first lie to be false, the next lie
started. Last week, some irresponsible individuals began to spread the rumor that we had
“sold our sovereign position to an affiliate” and effectively “parked” it there with an
obligation to buy it back. This is a malicious lie. Our sales and trading team sold and
covered our positions with unaffiliated third parties. To be crystal clear, Leucadia did
not purchase one bond and we have no obligation to purchase anything back in the future
from anyone.
We bring to your attention two additional facts. First, we have further reduced our total
gross exposure to Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain by almost another 50% (for a
total reduction of nearly 75%); and our net exposure remains insignificant at net short
$134 million, which is approximately 3.8% of our shareholders’ equity. Second, we were
both shocked and perversely amused when the analyst who first misled the public about
our sovereign debt exposure being 77% of our shareholders’ equity actually had the
temerity to state on widely broadcast television that he omitted the material fact that we
had almost equal and offsetting short sovereign debt positions because, and we quote, he
had “space constraints.” (By the way, that same analyst also points to our 12.9x
leverage at the end of August to be too high, but omits here the further material point
that we have been operating successfully and profitably with similar leverage for years,
including during the 2008-09 financial meltdown. In addition, he said that our leverage
ratio was now higher because our stock was trading lower. As all of you probably
recognize, trading prices are irrelevant to a company’s leverage ratio. Neither our equity,
our debt obligations nor the cost to us of our existing debt changes one iota with market
prices. What more can we say on this one?)



Read the rest in this press release:

http://www.jefferies.com/html/OurFirm/NewsRoom/PressReleases/2011/JefGrp_Letter to Shareholders.pdf

 

I remember when Lehmans was saying the same stuff.

 

I was thinking the same thing. The sharks are circling.

 

When the company starts blaming shorts its a goner....

 

1) It's okay to "do it" to the "other guy".
2) When the "other guys" "do it" to you, well that's just not "right". Shame on them! :eek:

 

Nah, you got that confused with Bear.

Or was it AIG?

Wait a second...

 

I heard those hedgefund shorters are like Sith lords.

 

What's the deal with these defensive approaches? The second someone starts firing back they curl up in a ball and start crying in the sandbox. If they were taking me out, I'd at least make it a shit-show.

 

1/3 of "XYZ fund management" was blown to bits today following their 4th negative report on "athlonmank8 inc."