On the Acquisition of SunGard for $9.1bn - Gary Norcross at Helm of Payment Technology Giant Fidelity National With a Strategy to Unlever SGard

Jacksonville, Florida-based Fidelity National Information Services also known as FIS, a banking and payments technology expert, has purchased financial software specialist SunGard for $9.1bn, paying cash and stock. This gives FIS exposure to the asset management space.

Gary Norcross, CEO of FIS, wants to reduce SunGard's debt drastically post-acquisition. He joined FIS more than 10 years prior, when the company acquired ALLTEL information services for $1.05bn. He has a business degree from the University of Arkansas.

This transaction is another landmark in the history of SunGard, which was acquired in 2005 in what was the largest technology privatisation ever, by seven private equity investors who struggled to boost its value. SunGard had earlier spun off its disaster recovery unit in order to reduce its size and make it more of a reasonable acquisition to a prospective buyer.

Big Brands of Dalal Street

Overview

The BSE is an exchange for Indian equities, currency derivatives and interest rate products sometimes informally referred to as "Dalal Street" (or "Brokers' Street). It's CEO is Ashish Chauhan, who became the Deputy CEO after working at Reliance Industries.

The biggest stocks on Dalal Street

In terms of market capitalization they are Tata Consultancy Services (with a market capitalization of around 5 lakh crore rupees), Reliance Industries and ITC Ltd.

ITCs brands include Aashirvaad, Sunfeast and Kitchens of India. The ITC brand also gives its name to a range of luxury hotels in India including ITC Grand Chola in Chennai and ITC Maratha in Mumbai.

History of Stock Trading, 1875, Rise of the Sensex, 1986

BSE's history goes back to 1875 but its activity in derivatives is altogether more recent, with the S&P BSE Sensex launched in 1986 with a base year 1978-1979 with value 100. This was India's first stock index. It consists of 30 stocks and is designed to reflect the overall sentiment of the market.

History of Equity Derivatives, 2000

Equity derivatives were launched as late as June 2000.  On February 27, 2015, BSE launched LEIPS or single stock options (LEIPs being the Liquidity Enhancement Incentive Program), the running of such schemes being authorised by SEBI in June 2011. The single stocks scheme focuses on 20 securities in the BSE Sensex (examples being SBI, ICICI and HDFC bank). There are various types of incentive, one being a quote based incentive for MMs.

Currency Futures Market

Within currencies, the BSE offers futures contracts on pairs such as USD versus INR, pound, euro and yen as well versus INR.

Interesting Aspects

Shares with volume spurts are monitored (largest proportional change in ADV in lakhs). Say the ADV of a share is 1 lakh, and it suddenly trades 10 lakhs, this will be picked up by the volume spurts monitor.

Record $5.7bn paid by banks for FX and rate rigging

Barclays was fined the most at $2.4bn. The fines were primarily for cartel-style operations in the FX market between 2008 and 2012. Barclay's CEO Antony Jenkins who hails from the British town of Stoke on Trent and has a Cranfield MBA expressed regret at the bank's actions. His stock rallied 3.4%. The fines were from a number of regulators with the US Department of Justice raking in a record windfall in fines. JP Morgan's problems apparently resulted from an ex RBS hire who was brought in as head of G10 spot trading.

Sir Ian Wood, founder of Wood Group, Warns of Risk to North Sea Oil Facilities

Scottish billionaire Sir Ian Wood warned the UK government that $50 oil prices could lead to decommissioning of North Sea oil facilities and unexploited oil.

Bob Dudley, an America from Queens who succeeded Tony Hayward in 2010 as Chief Executive of BP, said "The North Sea decline is inevitable".

30 year low for Baltic Sea Freight Index

The main sea freight index run by the Baltic Exchange dropped to a 30-year low - it's lowest level since the 1980s. The index tracks daily earnings for dry bulk vessels comprising Capesize, Panamax, Supramax and Handysize.

The largest of these ships are Capesize, they are too large to transit through the Suez Canal (see later note)  or Panama Canal and thus must pass through the Cape of Good Hope or Cape Horn. Specialist brokers exist for Capesize trades.   Capesize bulk carriers are used to transport iron ore, coal and commodity raw materials.

Little know facts:

• The Cape of Good Hope is not the Southernmost tip of Africa. That honour in fact goes to Cape Agulhas.
• After the deepening of the Suez Canal in 2009 (from 18m to 20m) many Capesize vessels can now pass through the Suez Canal.

Capesize vessels can only stop in large ports with deep-water terminals.

Merkel Will Not Absolve More Greek Debt

The German Chancellor stated that there had already been voluntary debt forgiveness.  Greek debt currently stands at 315 billion euros, about 175% of GDP. According to Open Europe, 60% of Greek debt is owed to the Eurozone, 10% to the IMF, 6% to ECB and the rest to other sources, including foreign banks.

"Stabilising Inflation" Behind Russian Rate Cut to 15%

The Russian Central Bank has announced a rate cut from 17% to 15%, following which the rouble fell 2% against the dollar, making the dollar worth about 70 roubles. The IMF forecasts the Russian economy will contract by 3% in 2015 and 1% in 2016.