Morgan Stanley: Best Friend of CEOs
If you’re a CEO of a public company looking for a raise, you should be happy to see Morgan Stanley on your list of largest stock holders. A new study by an affiliate of the AFL-CIO finds that MS votes in favor of management-compensation proposals a whopping 94.7% of the time compared to an average of 73.9%. The other Top 5 pushovers include AIM Investments, Dreyfus, AllianceBernstein, and Oppenheimer. “One of the best examples of excessive undeserved CEO pay was the pay package that [former Morgan Stanley CEO] Phil Purcell walked away with,” said one of the study’s authors. “They may be embarrassed to vote against pay packages that would make their CEO pay packages look even that much more excessive.” Zing!
Mutual Funds Stoke CEO Pay [MarketWatch]
The Goldman Diaries: A True Wall Street Blog
Bloomberg alerts us to what is sure to be our favorite component of any Wall Street firm website--the Goldman Diaries--and excerpts some real doozies, including the following:
“I’m going to run to the office this morning,” enthuses Juan at 6:30 a.m. “I’ve got a lot of stuff to do today, so let me start it right!” Way to go, Juan! Juan’s next entry, though, isn’t until 8:15 a.m. “I’m famished,” he says. After running for more than 90 minutes, I’m not surprised. Juan gives himself a half-hour to check e-mail and news while inhaling a bowl of Wheaties at his desk, “and then my day really begins.” Wow. A Goldmanite starting work at 8:45 a.m. Maybe Juan won’t be making managing director after all.
It gets worse. Not only is Juan taking a lunch break, he’s ``out to my favorite Italian place with some of my buddies. We’ll go over some projects but more than likely we’ll talk about sports and soccer in Europe.’’ I can see Juan’s shiny new red Ferrari disappearing over the horizon without him. But wait. This is Goldman, remember? ``7:30 p.m. Dinner! While eating, I’ll analyze financial modeling. 10:00 p.m. Whew! What a day, and it’s about to end!’’ Nice recovery, Juan! We’ll make a Goldman partner of you yet!
This is too good to be true.
At Goldman, Lunch Still for Wimps [Bloomberg]
Goldman Goes Retail, Literally
In another demonstration of its appetite for private prop deals, Goldman Sachs took a controlling interest in German department store chain KarstadtQuelle for a cool $3.7 billion. The investment in the Essen-based KarstadtQuelle, which has 122 department stores and commands a 40 percent market share in Germany, was made through the Whitehall real estate fund. According to The Times, principal investments made up just $695 million in revenue in Q1, less than seven percent of total receipts.
GS Invests in German Store Chain [NY Times]
Lehman’s Voice Has Changed, Hair Spotted on Chest
"We came close to the edge. People were walking into my office and asking if they should still go ahead and buy the new house they wanted. I told them there was nothing to worry about.” This flashback to October 1998 when the SEC was forced to step in at Lehman was related last week by Lehman internation head Jeremy Isaacs. Far from destroying the firm, it proved to be a critical inflection point (you know, “That which doesn’t kill me only makes me stronger” kind of stuff) that has propelled it in recent years into the top tier. “That year was incredibly important. It crystalised our culture. It made us recognise our core values. It also made us believe we were fighting against the system,” Isaacs said. Uggh, who the hell really buys into that corporate culture brainwashing crap anyway?
Lehman Plans to Join Big Boys [London Times]
