Spain’s Liberbank sells 85 pct of Telecable to Carlyle Group


MADRID Oct 18 (Reuters) - Spanish savings bank Liberbank said on Tuesday it has agreed to sell 85 percent of telecommunications company Telecable to the Carlyle Group, cutting the bank’s stake to 15 percent.No financial details of the sale were provided.On Monday, a source told Reuters that Liberbank planned to raise capital by selling an approximately 70 percent stake in Telecable worth about 300 million euros.Spain has forced its banks — laden with bad debt after a housing bubble burst in 2008 — to merge and raise capital or be taken over by the government.Banks without significant private investment must meet a 10 percent core tier 1 capital ratio.Liberbank, formed by the merger of regional savings banks Cajastur, Caja Extremadura and Caja Cantabria, initially required about 519 million euros to reach the 10 percent target, but had cut this back to about 200 million euros by generating capital organically, the source said on Monday.The Bank of Spain gave Liberbank and one other bank, Banco Mare Nostrum (BMN) more time to raise funds.BMN plans to issue 250 million euros of convertible bonds to meet the central bank’s tough new capital requirements, a source close to the deal said on Monday.

S&P downgrades Egypt on economic stability risks


S&P cut Egypt’s’s long-term foreign-currency rating to BB-minus from BB. The long-term local-currency rating was cut by two notches, to BB-minus from BB-plus.All the ratings have a negative outlook.

UPDATE 1-U.S. cannot overhaul tax code in 2 months-Geithner


A select group of lawmakers are grappling with how to find at least $1.2 trillion in savings over the next decade. Although there is pressure on the six Democrats and six Republicans to fix the tax code, Geithner said it was not possible to do so by a November deadline.”We are not going to do fundamental tax reform in two months,” Geithner told the Senate Small Business Committee. Geithner pointed to tax benefits for small businesses that are part of the Obama administration’s $447 billion jobs program.Those include an extension of the employee payroll tax holiday and allowing companies to deduct the value of their new investments from their tax obligations.”This is a bridge to fundamental tax reform not a substitute,” he said. Senate Republicans have already blocked the overall bill, forcing the administration and Senate Democrats to consider pushing parts of the bill through Congress.Geithner urged Congress to support specific provisions in the proposal. He said that small U.S. businesses still face a very tough economy and are experiencing more challenges than larger businesses after the recession.”The biggest problem facing the economy today… if you look at what businesses say today, their overwhelming challenge is they don’t see enough growth and demand for their products,” he said.The congressional deficit reduction panel has until Nov. 23 to reach an agreement to curb federal spending. If lawmakers fail to do so, automatic budget cuts will be triggered starting in 2013 that would cut funding across the board.

UPDATE 4-Sinohydro jumps 38 pct on China debut, triggers halt


* Sinohydro $2.1 bln IPO is biggest in mainland so far in 2011 (Updates prices to midday, confirmation from stock exchange)By Soo Ai Peng and Samuel ShenSHANGHAI, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Shares of Chinese dam builder Sinohydro Group soared nearly 40 percent on their Shanghai debut on Tuesday, triggering a temporary suspension, as investors piled in to profit from an attractive valuation.The builder of the Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest hydropower project, raised $2.1 billion in the mainland’s biggest IPO so far this year, but priced its shares at a significant discount to peers in the face of volatile equity markets.Investors initially gave a relatively muted response to the debut, pushing Sinohydro’s shares up 6 percent at the open from the IPO price of 4.50 yuan ($0.71), but piled in later in the morning until the shares hit as high as 6.23 yuan, a gain of more than 38 percent from the IPO price.That surge, which defied analysts’ expectations that the shares would hover around the IPO price on their first day of trading, triggered a stock exchange rule that requires a half-hour suspension in the event of a rise of 30 percent or more from the opening price.”It’s speculative money chasing a relatively cheap and eye-catching stock in a sluggish market where there’s hardly any chance to make money,” said a fund manager at Aegon-Industrial Fund Management Co, who declined to be identified.”Sinohydro priced its IPO in a very weak market so some investors may think it’s a bargain, but the big fluctuations could only be driven by speculation.”Sinohydro is best known as the main builder of the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River, a colossal 22.5 gigawatt project completed in 2005 that has since faced criticism over its environmental impact.Some traders said they saw a large amount of retail buying, as individual investors who may have missed out on the IPO sought to profit from the relatively low price.The shares trimmed gains after the halt was lifted to end the morning session at 5.86 yuan, up 30.2 percent from its IPO price. The broader Shanghai market , which has endured a turbulent ride in recent months, was down 1.7 percent.Beijing announced measures last week to bolster financial stocks and support small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with China’s sovereign wealth fund buying shares in the big four banks, helping trigger a rebound from two-and-half-year lows.DEPRESSED MARKETWeakness in China’s stock market, which has fallen over 10 percent so far this year due to fears of an economic slowdown and the euro-zone debt crisis, has forced many Chinese companies to postpone or downsize their IPOs.A similar story in Hong Kong, the world’s biggest IPO market for the last two years, has also pushed back some firms’ fundraising plans there.In one of the most high-profile cases, Sany Heavy Industry Co last month postponed its plan to raise as much as $3.3 billion via a Hong Kong listing.In mainland China, companies raised $34.9 billion from first-time share sales in the first nine months of the year, down 37 percent from a year earlier, Thomson Reuters data showed.Sinohydro braved the weaker market, but slashed the size of its IPO by a fifth in response to weak investor demand, pricing the offer at the bottom of an indicative range and raising 13.5 billion yuan ($2.1 billion) last month, compared with an original target of up to 17.3 billion yuan.It priced its IPO at a discount to rivals such as China Gezhouba . The 4.50 yuan IPO price valued the company at 11.5 times estimated 2011 earnings, while China Gezhouba’s shares are trading at around 15.6 times, according to Thomson Reuters data.Sinohydro’s debut performance may bode well for upcoming major IPOs, including those from China Communications Construction Co , Shaanxi Coal Industry and New China Life, which IFR, a Thomson Reuters service, said on Tuesday would seek regulatory approval for a $4 billion offering in Hong Kong and Shanghai next week.”It shows that the market can still digest big IPOs and it’s a good sign for other mega IPOs in the pipeline,” said Chen Yi, an investment adviser with the sales department of Xiangcai Securities in Shanghai.China Communications Construction, the country’s biggest port builder, plans to raise 20 billion yuan in a Shanghai IPO, while coal miner Shaanxi Coal also plans to raise about 17.3 billion.Sinohydro has said it plans to use the IPO proceeds to upgrade its machinery, invest in some green energy projects and supplement working capital.China Securities Co and Bank of China International were lead underwriters for the offer. ($1 = 6.371 Chinese Yuan)

Greek tax inspectors announce strike as austerity protests spread


* Budget deficit widens in first nine months, despite new taxesBy Harry PapachristouATHENS, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Greek tax inspectors will go on strike next week to protest against planned wage and pension cuts, threatening more disruption to revenue collection efforts that are already falling behind the tough budget targets imposed by international lenders.With much of Greece expected to be shut down by a general strike on Oct. 19, finance ministry officials have called a two-week stoppage from Oct. 17 while tax offices will remain closed on Oct. 17-20 and customs officials will stay away from their desks on Oct. 18-23.The walkouts are not only expected to disrupt tax payments. They might also block statistics releases and even fuel supplies, since petrol deliveries from refiners to tank stations usually require customs clearance.”This law will drastically cut our wages and hurt our pensions,” the POE-DOY union, which represents tax officials, said in a statement.Athens has promised tough new civil service wage cuts to convince the European Union and International Monetary Fund that it will meet its budget deficit targets of 8.5 percent of gross domestic product this year and 6.8 percent in the next.But the strike underlines the risks to a tax collection drive demanded by the EU and IMF inspectors as workers who will themselves suffer from the austerity measures resist implementing the new laws.Disgruntled electricity workers have already threatened to boycott a planned property tax, designed to be collected through electricity bills as a means of bypassing the notoriously inefficient tax authority.On Wednesday, workers in the Greek archaeological service, responsible for running sites such as the Acropolis in Athens which help attract much-needed tourist revenues to Greece, also went on strike. Doctors and nurses and teachers were planning separate demonstrations.”We’ll continue with labour action and occupations next week when the general strike takes place,” said Despina Spanou, a senior leader of the ADEDY union, which represents half a million public sector workers.”We expect it to be the biggest walkout so far, an answer to this austerity bill that rips us off. We cannot live like this,” she told Reuters.Public sector workers have already lost a fifth of their salaries since the start of the crisis. Spanou said the new bill will further reduce wages by 20 percent on average.”It’s not just salary cuts. It’s a combination of measures that hurt civil servants such as the unified wage scale or the labour reserve. I am an example of the pain they feel. I’ve already lost 70 percent of my 2009 salary,” she said.DEFICIT WIDENSWith Greece trapped in deep recession and fighting to control a public debt mountain expected to reach 162 percent of GDP this year, there has been growing doubt over its ability to stave off a debt default.Parliament is debating a sweeping package of measures, ranging from wage and pension cuts, tax hikes and large scale public sector layoffs. Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said the measures had to be approved in time for an EU leaders’ summit on Oct. 23.”This law needs to be approved before the EU summit so that the PM can stand up and argue that Greece is fulfilling its obligations,” Venizelos told lawmarkers at a reading of the legislation in parliament on Wednesday.The government has already admitted it will miss its 2011 deficit target and Venizelos has warned that if citizens fail to back new tax measures, the 2011 budget deficit could reach 9 percent of GDP, even higher than the new 8.5 percent goal.On Tuesday, officials from the so-called EU-IMF “troika” noted that Greece would miss its 2011 fiscal targets and needed to take additional steps to get back on track to meet targets beyond 2012.But the austerity measures imposed so far by Prime Minister George Papandreou’s centre-left government have failed to make visible headway in solving the crisis.On Wednesday, data showed Greece’s central government budget deficit during the first nine months widened 15 percent year-on-year to 19.2 billion euros as measures including a hike on sales tax in restaurants and a one-off income tax surcharge failed to boost overall tax revenues.The finance ministry said the shortfall was mainly due to a deeper-than-expected recession, which has been exacerbated by the austerity measures.The slump not only hurt revenues but also lifted spending, as the government increased payments to social security organisations, whose receipts are drying up as businesses and workers reduce contributions.