Bad Home Loans Pit Vranos Against Cayne as Hedge Funds Outbid Wall Street

(Bloomberg) -- James E. ``Jimmy'' Cayne helped make
Bear Stearns Cos. the mortgage king of the securities industry
by packaging home loans into bonds and selling them to clients
like Michael Vranos. Now Vranos, who manages $29 billion at
Ellington Management Group LLC, is cutting Cayne out of the
middle and buying mortgages on his own.

On Wall Street, they call that disintermediation, and it's
eating into almost $9 billion of fees that firms including New
York-based Bear Stearns earn from securitizing mortgages.
Instead of buying such bonds at markups of 1 percent or more,
hedge funds expect to make better returns by taking over bad
debts and pressing borrowers to pay up.


Read more at Bloomberg Bonds News

China Mobile eyes biggest ever Shanghai listing

(Reuters) - SHANGHAI/HONG KONG, June 18 - China Mobile
, the world's largest cellular phone operator, is
planning a multibillion-dollar share sale in Shanghai as early as
next month to attract domestic investors, sources familiar with
the situation said on Monday.




It will likely be the biggest initial public offer of equity
ever in China's domestic markets, exceeding Industrial &
Commercial Bank of China's 46.6 billion yuan
Shanghai IPO last year, the banking sources said.


Read more at Reuters.com Government Filings News

Microsoft renames its IPTV platform "Mediaroom"

(Reuters) - The television push by the world's largest software maker aims to deliver TV over high-speed Internet networks and hopes the software will eventually open up the TV to a world of services already on the Web.




Microsoft said Mediaroom will also enable some applications that access the Internet without a Web browser, so users can view streaming online video or look at photos uploaded onto the Internet.


Read more at Reuters.com Business News

Copper Rises in Asian Trade on Strike Concern, U.S. Economy; Zinc Declines

(Bloomberg) -- Copper prices rose in Asia on
concern that labor unrest in Chile may disrupt supply, and as
lower-than-expected U.S. inflation boosted the outlook for
demand in the U.S., the world's second-biggest consumer of the
metal.

Chile's Codelco, the world's biggest copper producer, faces
protests by workers demanding bigger bonuses, a union leader
said June 15. In the U.S., chances of an interest rate rise,
which might slow economic growth and copper consumption, were
reduced as consumer prices, excluding food and fuel, rose 0.1
percent last month, compared with 0.2 percent projected by
economists.


Read more at Bloomberg Commodities News

Shenzhen Development Bank Sells Bonds to Raise $2 Billion to Boost Capital

(Bloomberg) -- Shenzhen Development Bank Co.,
controlled by buyout firm TPG Inc., will raise as much as 16
billion yuan ($2.1 billion) selling debt to replenish capital
that has dropped below a government-mandated minimum.

The bank will sell 8 billion yuan of subordinated bonds with
maturity of between five and 15 years and another 8 billion yuan
of hybrid bonds with maturity of at least 15 years, the Shenzhen-
based bank said in a statement to the city's exchange on Saturday.
The debt will be sold within 18 months upon shareholder approval.


Read more at Bloomberg Emerging Markets News

UPDATE 1-Japan government keeps view economy recovering

(Reuters) - Revised government data showed last week that Japan's economy
grew an annualised 3.3 percent in January-March, outperforming
both the United States and the euro zone for the second straight
quarter.




"The economy is recovering, despite weakness in some sectors
of industrial production," the government said in a monthly
report issued on Monday, reiterating the phrase it has used since
April.


Read more at Reuters.com Economic News

Japan Shares Rise to Highest Since February, on Easing U.S. Inflation, Yen

(Bloomberg) -- Japanese stocks advanced, driving
key indexes to the highest since February, after a report showed
U.S. core consumer prices slowed, increasing speculation Japan's
biggest overseas market will expand without adding to inflation.

Toyota Motor Corp., the world's largest automaker by market
value, climbed to the highest since March and Canon Inc., which
made almost one third of its sales in North America last year,
had the biggest gain in a month.


Read more at Bloomberg Stocks News