Corporate & Securities Law

300 Companies Struggling Over Auction-Rate Securities With One-Half Of Them So Far Reporting Losses Totaling $1.8 Billion

By James Eccleston

Auction-rate securities woes continue. More than 300 companies are struggling to value auction-rate bonds after dealers battered by subprime-related losses abandoned the $330 billion market in February. About half of the companies reported losses totaling $1.8 billion as the market for the securities, sold as higher-yielding alternatives to money markets, seized up.

It's a "who's who" of corporations who have reported losses: United Parcel Service; Google; Royal Bank of Canada; Hill-Rom Holdings of Batesville, Indiana; HCA Inc., the largest U.S. hospital chain; JPMorgan Chase & Co.; and, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, among others.

SNSFE continues to assist corporations in monitoring class actions, in attempting to negotiate settlements, and, of course, in arbitrating and litigating over the investment losses and redemptions.

Source: Bloomberg

Full post as published by FinancialCounsel on May 28, 2008 (boomark / email).