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Superyacht is reporting that the Derecktor Shipyard’s built Cakewalk V has been listed for sale for 152.5 euros, which is about $215 million.
Derecktor built and dropped the giant yacht into the water in Bridgeport in 2010. It’s the largest private yacht built in America since the 1930s.
Here’s the link to the Superyachts’ story. But please return to Financial Mines later today for more interesting fodder.
http://www.superyachts.com/news/superyacht-cakewalk-now-available-for-sale-1252.htm
While the economy has continued to limp along for the last couple of years now, generating few jobs, Stamford-based Indeed.com, is reporting an 80 percent increase in job postings in the state with much of the activity centered in Fairfield County.
There were 84,277 job openings posted in the state in April, according to Indeed
Here’s where indeed sees the most job postings in the state:
Hartford –6,614
Stamford – 5,268
New Haven – 2,564
Norwalk – 1,752
Danbury – 1,725
Waterbury – 1,396
Bridgeport – 1,331
Greenwich – 1,253
Shelton and Stratford both had more than 700 job postings.
The top organizations for posting jobs included Yale University, Pratt & Whtiney, Boehringer Ingelheim, United Health Group, Travelers, Yale New Haven Hospital and General Electric Co.
A big issue for job hunters remains competition and qualifications as companies are seeking people with specific certifications and training. Because there are so many candidates per job, the companies can wait for the candidate that most fits their specifications.
But the jobs are starting to appear and human resoruces and finance directors are saying budgets are now allowing for hiring this year.
Good luck
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced monday it has charged Highview Point Partners LLC, a Stamford-based investment adviser, with engaging in a multi-year Ponzi scheme involving hundreds of millions of dollars.
The charges come just days after Highpoint filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Here are excerpts from the SEC’s press release on the situation.
Highview was added as a defendant to a case the SEC previously filed in January 2011, and three hedge funds managed by Highview were named as relief defendants because, according to the SEC’s charges, they are in possession of funds tainted by the Ponzi scheme. After a hearing, the Honorable Janet Bond Arterton, U.S. District Judge for the District of Connecticut, entered a consented-to order on May 13 temporarily freezing the assets of Highview and the three hedge funds it advises. A hearing on the SEC’s motion for a preliminary injunction is set for May 23.
Highview appears to be entagled in the case involving Francisco Illarramendi and MK Capital Management, another alleged ponzi scheme that might have cost investors $53 million. Illarramendi and MK Capital’s funds were already frozen by a court order.
On May 10, the SEC filed a second amended complaint adding Highview as a defendant, and charging that Illarramendi conducted his alleged fraud while he was a partial owner of Highview, a Commission-registered investment adviser, and that he used the two advisory firms (Highview and MK Capital Management) in tandem to conduct the scheme. In particular, the second amended complaint alleges, among other things, that Highview Point Partners, acting through Illarramendi, misappropriated money from the three hedge funds it advised: Highview Point Master Fund, Ltd., Highview Point Offshore, Ltd., and Highview Point LP. The second amended complaint alleges that Illarramendi hid the misappropriation in the Highview hedge funds by misappropriating money from different hedge funds managed by MK Capital Management. According to the second amended complaint, this acted as a fraud on both sets of clients, in that Illarramendi used money from one set of investors to repay earlier investors.
Galleon co-founder Raj Rajaratnam’s conviction on insider trading violations raises a number of questions and concerns for the investment community, but should one of those be about whether an investors keeps profits gained as a result of these kinds of activities?
Fred Wilpon, who the trustee investigating the Madoff fraud, has said owes investors about $1 billion in profits, is shopping a minority stake in the Mets as he and his partners defend themselves against the allegations.
One of the potential buyers of that stake is Steve Cohen, whose firm SAC Capital, is now bogged down in an insider trading investigation involving former employees.
So with federal prosecutors claiming that Rajaratnam, a Greenwich resident, pocketed more than $63 million in profits from his insider trading scheme, should Galleon investors worry?
Attorney Rick Slavin, head of Cohen and Wolf P.C.’s securities group and a former SEC litigator, said probably not from the government, but a private lawsuit might arise.
“Using the reasoning I’ve been using with Madoff, it’s an ill-gotten gain,” Slavin said. “When you can show one investors lost everything and one who got paid because he win first, it’s an easy argument that the one who got paid should pay back the illegal profits.”
Bernard Madoff ran a $65 billion ponzi scheme that wiped out a lot of money, but early investors apparent got paid. And that’s what the trustee says Wilpon was.
In effect, you can see who lost money and who gained.
In the Galleon case, it appears investors made money with Rajaratnam. But are those profits ill-gotten.
“Investors of the fund benefit from his trading,” Slavin said. “It’s certainly possible the fund becomes a defendant in a civil action.”
That requires a party to show some harm was done.
In Galleon, Slavin said it was the market that was harmed and ultimately, investors in the stocks that weren’t privy to the same information that Rajaratnam had.
There are a lot of interesting arguments to be made in regards to who should pay for insider trading.
Should an investor who didn’t know about the insider deals, be penalized? Certainly there was no intent or action to do wrong.
But should ignorance serve as a defense when people profit off of illegal activity?
If the government really wants to stop insider trading, wouldn’t going after profits from investors accomplish that? Certainly investors would be more diligent about who gets their money to invest if they might face a federal investigation and possibly losing profits?
Ultimately, Slavin said he didn’t think the fund will face fines.
Stamford-based WWE reported net income of $8.6 million, or 11 cents per share, for the first quarter 0f 2011, down from the $24.7 million, or 33 cents per share for the first quarter of 2010.
The company has expanded its entertainment offerings during the last few years and branched into movies. It said its cinematic reveneus were off in the quarter, largely due to impairment charges related to its 2009 movie, 12 Rounds and marketing and related costs associated with its latest offering The Chaperone.
Last year, the WWE’s big revenue generator, Wrestlemania occured in the first quarter, but this year it happened in the second. So that also trimmed first quarter profits. However, this sets up expectations for a stronger second quarter than last year.
Revenues at WWE for the first quarter topped $119.9 million.
Executives will hold a conference call with anlysts, later today.
Stamford-based Silgan Holdings reported net income failed to meet analysts expectations in the first quarter. The mean EPS for the consumer goods packaging company, according to a survey by FactSet Research was 39 cents a share.
Silgan reported net income of $26.1 million, or 37 cents a share for the first quarter of 2011. The company reported net income of $26.8 million, or 35 cents a share, for the same quarter a year ago.
Silgan said it had a couple of one-time costs related to recent acquisitions in the quarter but also saw an impact in its metal container shipment business, which was slower this quarter because customers adjusted their buying cycles.
The company held a conference with analysts to discuss the earnings, but barred media from accessing the live venue on Wednesday. A replay will be available on May 19.
Like much of the market, Shares of Silgan traded down on Wednesday and were off 37 cents to $45.30 in trading before noon.
GE filed on Monday the final tally of votes from its Salt Lake City meeting revealing who shareholders like at the helm of the Fairfield-based giant.
Alan “A.G.” Lafley, the former Proctor & Gamble chief, was the most popular director, with 6.09 billion votes for and garnering less than 100 million against. He was the only director to have such a low against total.
He just edged out Robert J. Swieringa, an accomplished accountant and academic, who taught at Stanford, Yale and served as the dean of Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management for a decade.
The dubious honor of least popular director went to Andrea Jung, chairman and chief executive officer of Avon Products Inc., who got 5.2 billion shares for 841.8 million against.
Here’s the table from the SEC filing.
| A. | Election of Directors: |
| Shares For | Shares Against | Shares Abstain | Non-Votes | |||||||||||||
| W. Geoffrey Beattie | 5,717,325,631 | 383,106,769 | 43,344,740 | 2,116,572,066 | ||||||||||||
| James I. Cash, Jr. | 5,645,873,768 | 458,620,354 | 39,283,018 | 2,116,572,066 | ||||||||||||
| Ann M. Fudge | 5,980,010,414 | 125,446,071 | 38,320,655 | 2,116,572,066 | ||||||||||||
| Susan Hockfield | 5,753,374,448 | 352,901,081 | 37,501,611 | 2,116,572,066 | ||||||||||||
| Jeffrey R. Immelt | 5,820,576,981 | 287,746,410 | 35,453,749 | 2,116,572,066 | ||||||||||||
| Andrea Jung | 5,264,422,127 | 841,842,544 | 37,512,469 | 2,116,572,066 | ||||||||||||
| Alan G. (A.G.) Lafley | 6,009,125,481 | 94,909,446 | 39,742,213 | 2,116,572,066 | ||||||||||||
| Robert W. Lane | 5,693,451,078 | 410,460,140 | 39,865,922 | 2,116,572,066 | ||||||||||||
| Ralph S. Larsen | 5,687,148,399 | 415,960,151 | 40,668,590 | 2,116,572,066 | ||||||||||||
| Rochelle B. Lazarus | 5,721,498,411 | 384,331,125 | 37,947,604 | 2,116,572,066 | ||||||||||||
| James J. Mulva | 5,755,998,766 | 348,124,546 | 39,653,828 | 2,116,572,066 | ||||||||||||
| Sam Nunn | 5,561,936,241 | 543,866,478 | 37,974,421 | 2,116,572,066 | ||||||||||||
| Roger S. Penske | 5,503,458,091 | 569,136,352 | 71,182,697 | 2,116,572,066 | ||||||||||||
| Robert J. Swieringa | 6,001,616,478 | 102,018,837 | 40,141,825 | 2,116,572,066 | ||||||||||||
| James S. Tisch | 5,420,316,467 | 684,167,933 | 39,292,740 | 2,116,572,066 | ||||||||||||
| Douglas A. Warner III | 5,639,542,216 | 465,911,295 | 38,323,629 | 2,116,572,066 | ||||||||||||
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