Master of the world?

Jean Marie Messier became Chairman of Compagnie General des Eaux in 1996 at the age of 38. He was a graduate of elite French universities. At age 29, he held a senior post in the French Ministry of Economy and Finance. At age 32, he joined Lazard Frères, where he...

Borders circles the drain

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Borders Group Inc. was halting payments to some suppliers, and that one publisher had stopped shipping books to Borders.  The end is near.  As we discussed in an earlier post, if trade creditors lose faith in a company,...

Top 10 Credit Topics of 2010

Here’s our list of the top 10 topics on the minds of credit professionals in 2010: 10) Risk Management – We’ve written many times this year about risk management, both good and bad.  Whether it was BP and operational risk, suppliers dealing with...

Lehman’s Worst Offense: Risk Management

Last post, we argued that Lehman’s Repo 105 balance-sheet-management tactic was not the worst thing Lehman Brothers did on its way to extinction. Volume 8 of Anton Vakulas’s Bankruptcy Examiner’s report details a bunch of blunders with far more serious consequences....

Amend and Extend or Amend and Pretend?

In the last 6 months, we’ve seen a number of “amend and extend” transactions. Typically they involve: The extension of the maturity of a term loan and/or revolver (typically for syndicated, non-investment grade loans). This is only for lenders who...