CRE Losses Moderating for U.S. Financial Institutions

27 Sep 2012 4:08 PM
CRE Losses Moderating for U.S. Financial Institutions

Fitch Ratings-Chicago-27 September 2012: Four years after U.S. financial institutions' commercial real estate (CRE) loan portfolios began to come under extreme pressure during the credit crisis, moderate improvements in CRE loan loss performance are supporting steady but slow asset quality recovery for most U.S. financial institutions rated by Fitch. The trend is positive and reflects a view that the recovery in CRE will not be as financially painful as Fitch had previously expected, although the return to normalized levels of performance and growth may be more prolonged.

Happiness, Ernest Hemingway

Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

- Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), “The Garden of Eden” Ch. 11

Special Report: How Romney energy czar fuels business with politics

Special Report: How Romney energy czar fuels business with politics

By David Sheppard and Joshua Schneyer and Alexander Cohen
NEW YORK/WASHINGTON | Fri Sep 21, 2012 7:00 pm EDT

(Reuters) - It's a cornerstone policy in Mitt Romney's bid for the White House: build the Keystone XL Pipeline. The controversial $7.6 billion conduit would pump a river of crude from Canada down to Texas refineries.

President Barack Obama has postponed until next year a decision on whether to approve the line, as environmentalists decry its route across ecologically sensitive areas. Romney says it will create hundreds of thousands of jobs and promote energy independence. In April, he told fellow Republican Party leaders: "I will build that pipeline if I have to do it myself."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/21/us-hamm-romney-profile-idUSBRE88J12L20120921

American Real Estate Investors Seek Opportunities in European Debt Crisis

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American Real Estate Investors Seek Opportunities in European Debt Crisis

By TERRY PRISTIN
Published: September 18, 2012

While the world is anxiously watching to see how the European debt crisis will unfold, many real estate investors in the United States are eagerly seeking opportunities to reap profits from the Continent’s distress.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/19/realestate/commercial/american-real-estate-investors-seek-opportunities-in-europes-debt-crisis.html

Will Lower Oil Prices Be a Surprise in October?

http://www.cnbc.com/id/49093881

Will Lower Oil Prices Be a Surprise in October?

Published: Wednesday, 19 Sep 2012 | 5:53 PM ET
By: Patti Domm
CNBC Executive News Editor

Absent a Mideast crisis, oil prices have likely seen their 2012 highs, and Brent could easily slide to $100 or below before the end of the year.

Colony Capital to raise €500m to €1bn for European debt strategy

Colony Capital to raise €500m to €1bn for European debt strategy
Posted on September 18, 2012 3:33 pm by James Wallace

Colony Capital is looking to raise between €500m and €1bn over the next 12 months for a first lien European senior debt strategy, deepening the global private equity firm’s real estate debt offering across the capital stack, CoStar News can reveal.

http://costarfinance.com/2012/09/18/colony-capital-to-raise-e500m-to-e1bn-for-european-debt-strategy/

Complete Disaster in the Making

Carbon markets
Complete Disaster in the Making

The world’s only global carbon market is in need of a radical overhaul
Sep 15th 2012 |

WHAT would you say about a market that has helped reduce carbon emissions by a billion tonnes in seven years, attracted $215 billion of green investments to developing countries (more than any private environmental fund) and cut the cost of climate-change mitigation by $3.6 billion? The answer, to judge by a United Nations panel looking into the workings of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is: you’d say it is a shambles.

'Tempting returns' for Asian investors in European real-estate debt

'Tempting returns' for Asian investors in European real-estate debt
Asset manager thinks Asian investors will be drawn by yields of up to 12 per cent from non-bank lenders in European real estate

Friday, 07 September, 2012, 11:36am

Paggie Leung
paggie.leung@scmp.com

Asset manager BlackRock believes Chinese and other Asian investors may be lured by high returns to invest in a growing market for real-estate debt in Europe.

http://www.scmp.com/property/international/article/1029464/tempting-returns-asian-investors-european-real-estate-debt

At long last, World Wide Plaza hits the market

At long last, World Wide Plaza hits the market
August 28, 2012 10:30 AM

Worldwide Plaza, the behemoth office building located at 825 Eighth Avenue, will go up for auction, the New York Observer reported. The owners of the 59-story tower, George Comfort & Sons and RGC Longview, first tapped Eastdil Secured to market the building in May. After failing to secure an off-market bid they were happy with, Adam Spies and Doug Harmon of Eastdil told the Observer they were ready to head to auction with 1.8-million-square-foot tower.

The current owners nabbed the building for about $600 million in 2009, and the sale price for the building now is expected to be at least twice that, the Observer said. [NYO]

http://therealdeal.com/blog/2012/08/28/at-long-last-world-wide-plaza-hits-the-market/

Economy, Marc Faber

Europe is already in recession. Germany is still growing very, very slightly, but is likely to go into recession soon. The U.S. economy has decelerated and I don't see much growth in the next six to 12 months. ... I think that if you look at the injection of liquidity and the intervention by the Federal Reserve and the Treasury with fiscal measures, it has already impoverished the U.S. economy.

- Marc Faber (1946- ), CNBC, 2012.08.23