News About Auctions Business

The News Review:

- Palm revises 3Q results, reports $25 million charge for auction-rate…
- Auction Collapse Quadruples Fee for Bond Alternatives (Update2)
- Fed’s TAF to auction 50 bln usd, 28-day loans at 2.11 pct minimum…
- Auctions offer a way to speed up home sales
- Sotheby’s withdraws Sikh armour from auction
- Bank of Italy to auction 4.0 bln euro 3-mth, 8.0 bln euro 12-mth BOTs…

Palm revises 3Q results, reports $25 million charge for auction-rate…
International Herald Tribune – Apr 7, 2008
The revised loss comes as a result of a $25 million (€15. 9 million) write-down for auction-rate securities that have lost value since the collapse of that debt market in February. Auction-rate securities can have terms of up to 30 years, but the interest paid on them is reset at auctions periodically. The auctions held by large banks and other financial institutions for these securities recently have found few — if any — buyers. The $300 billion (€191. 2 billion) market is in trouble in part because the bond insurers that back them face downgrades by credit rating agencies. Today in Business with Reuters.

Auction Collapse Quadruples Fee for Bond Alternatives (Update2)
Bloomberg – Apr 7, 2008
Cooke April 7 (Bloomberg) — U. state and local borrowers fromDenver to Atlanta, battered by rising interest costs from thecollapse of the auction-rate bond market, now face higher feesto replace the debt. Denver found only five banks willing to provide backing fornew variable debt to replace $208 million of auction bonds, downfrom 30 five months ago, said Margaret Danuser, the city's debtadministrator. The cost to line up a buyer of last resort incase such bonds, variable-rate demand obligations, go unsoldwhen yields are reset jumped as much as fourfold to $400,000 on$100 million of securities a year, borrowers say.

Fed’s TAF to auction 50 bln usd, 28-day loans at 2.11 pct minimum…
Forbes – Apr 7, 2008
11 pct on Monday, April 7, under its new Term Auction Facility. The April 7 offering will be the ninth auction under the new TAF program designed to relieve liquidity pressure in the short-term, inter-bank funding markets. April is the second month of TAF auctions, totaling 100 bln usd. Results of today’s auction will be announced Tuesday, April 8.
Related: Fed’s Krosner sees benefits, practical problems with mortgage…

Auctions offer a way to speed up home sales
Seattle Times – Apr 7, 2008
The developers of The 400 are going to auction off 28 units April 20 in an eBay-like event. People throughout the country have expressed interest in participating.
Related: Dell to Offer Ubuntu Linux on PCs, Laptops

Sotheby’s withdraws Sikh armour from auction
Times of India – Apr 7, 2008
The 18th century
armour, estimated at 10-12,000 pounds, became controversial after some Sikh
cultural experts claimed it might have belonged to the 10th Sikh Guru, Gobind
Singh. The London auctioneers
later clarified that it did not belong to Guru Gobind Singh; they said their
catalogue only pointed to a stylistic similarity to a full set of armour in
possession of the Patiala royal family which the family attributed to Guru
Gobind Singh. Sotheby’s,
nevertheless, said it was withdrawing the item from the April 9 auction at the
request of the seller, who wanted it acquired by a member of the Sikh community. “Sotheby’s has been asked by
the consignor to arrange the acquisition of the lot by a suitable member of the
Sikh community,” Sotheby’s spokesman Simon Warren said in a
statement.

Bank of Italy to auction 4.0 bln euro 3-mth, 8.0 bln euro 12-mth BOTs…
Forbes – Apr 7, 2008
0 billion euros of 3-month Treasury bills (BOTs) and 8. 0 billion euros of 12-month BOTs at auctions that will be held next Thursday, with settlement on April 15, the economy ministry said.

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