EXPERTS' ROLE
"With so many investment banks advising on each side of the BCE (BCE) leveraged buyout (LBO), each of whom stood to gain tens of millions of dollars in fees should the largest going-private in the world eventually close, why did none of them figure out that BCE wouldn’t be “solvent” under the proposed capital structure? Perhaps that wasn’t their job, after all. Once you win the mandate, even the continent's greatest domestic and international i-bankers don’t always tell their clients what they fear isn’t welcome news: such as, “your proposal is C$3 billion short in the equity box”.
- [Nawwwwwwwwww, the investment advisors are telling the Governments that the DRIC project is NOT economically viable. Someone else must be pushing it forward for reasons unknown. There must be a "business case," not necessarily a "financial case" I guess!]
HOW WINDSOR LOOKS AFTER A BRIDGE
"Built in the 1920s, the College Avenue overpass serves as a graphic example of neglect.
"The bridge is well beyond its useful life," says Mark Winterton, manager of roads maintenance at the City of Windsor. "It's safe, but it's had almost zero maintenance done to it over the years."
Though still open to traffic, the structure's sidewalk has been been fenced off for pedestrian safety and is riddled with gaping holes exposing the Canadian Pacific train tracks below. Chunks of concrete from the 30-metre-long roadway regularly fall onto the tracks."
- [And some people want a public bridge! Too bad the City never learned from its traffic guru, Gridlock Sam who said "maintaining a state of good repair could reduce the need for expensive remedial action." Perhaps they should contact the Bridge Company.]
ARENA OVERBUDGET
Francis estimated that thanks to a $4 million grant from the Ontario government, the project was about $2 million below the original budget of $64.9 million.
- [That meant the cost was at least $66.9M. I wonder if the Contractor suggested changes to the plans like more seating or better dressing rooms but the City said NO to keep the costs on target. If, several years down the road, we see major changes to the Arena, you will know why. let the new Mayor and Council get stuck with them.]
AIR SHOW A "PILOT PROJECT"
- [DUH...what other kind of project would it be! What a sense of humour someone at Adminsitration has. Another Jay Leno Headline moment! Too bad that we are not going to have one....in Windsor. Maybe it might take place in the County.]
SORRY WRONG NUMBER
The $52-billion takeover deal for BCE Inc., Canada's biggest telecommunications company, is in jeopardy after an independent adviser said Wednesday that volatile market conditions and the mountain of debt involved in financing the country's largest-ever corporate buyout would put the company's solvency at risk.
BCE shares -- among the most widely held in Canada -- plunged 40 per cent after the announcement, which could mark the end of a private-equity group's 18-month pursuit of the Canadian icon.
- [If the DRIC bridge failed financially and the Ambassador Bridge was put out of business, would our trade with the US be put in jeopardy. Of course, not... taxpayers would be forced to bail out this Megaproject run amuck! We would have no choice. But that is ok... the investment bankers would have already earned their fees for putting the deal together.]
WILL BRIAN OR JOE GET A CABINET POSITION
Canada's opposition parties have agreed in principle to form a coalition that would topple Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative government, an official said, though infighting among one of the parties cast doubt on whether such a bloc would hold.
The opposition Liberals, New Democrats and Bloc Quebecois, the parties that would make up the new bloc, say that Harper has no solid plan to deal with the global economic crisis...
The Liberals and New Democrats have agreed to a coalition government structure that would give them a majority of seats, a New Democrat party official said Sunday. In the new government, the Liberals would have 18 Cabinet ministers and the New Democrats will have six, the official said.
- [The Honourable Brian or Joe. What would this do to the border file now!]
IS REAL ESTATE A GOOD INVESTMENT
YES--Canada's leading pension funds, to which most working Canadians contribute, own much of the country's top office and retail properties.
And so, that makes Canadians the largest owners of major commercial real estate properties across the country...
John Pierce, vice-president of corporate communications at OMERS – one of Canada's largest pension plans that provides retirement benefits to 380,000 members across Ontario – agreed.
"Real estate is an important part of our private asset investments and we're looking at moving more toward increasing those assets because of their long-term stability," he said.
With more than $52 billion invested in a wide range of companies and assets around the world, $10.9 million of OMERS assets are in real estate, representing 12.5 per cent of the entire fund, as of December 31, 2007.
NO-Malls from Michigan to Georgia are entering foreclosure, commercial victims of the same events poisoning the housing market.
Hotels in Tucson, Ariz., and Hilton Head, S.C., also are about to default on their mortgages...
We're probably in the first inning of the commercial mortgage problem, said Scott Tross, a real estate lawyer with Herrick Feinstein in New Jersey.
In the past, when businesses hit rough patches, owners negotiated with banks or refinanced their loans.
But many banks no longer hold the loans they made. Over the past decade, banks have increasingly bundled mortgages and sold them to investors. Pension funds, insurance companies, and hedge funds bought the seemingly safe securities and are now bracing for losses that could ripple through the financial system.
It's a toxic drug and nobody knows how bad it's going to be, said Paul Miller, an analyst with Friedman, Billings, Ramsey, who was among the first to sound alarm bells in the residential market...
Unlike home mortgages, businesses don't pay their loans over 30 years. Commercial mortgages are usually written for five, seven or 10 years with big payments due at the end. About $20 billion will be due next year, covering everything from office and condo complexes to hotels and malls.
Refinancing formerly was an option, but many properties are worth less than when they were purchased. And since investors no longer want to buy commercial mortgages, banks are reluctant to write new loans to refinance those facing foreclosure.
- [Want to buy an office complex in downtown Windsor with no money down?]
WHEN DID COALITION GOVERNMENT TALK REALLY BEGIN
Government whip Jay Hill makes no apologies for increased contact with committee chairs to keep tighter control on tactics, but blames a gang-up of opposition parties for the combative stance.
"They're increasingly behaving as though they're a coalition government cooking up deals behind closed doors. We're going to use the tools at our disposal to try and push back," he told me. "Canadians elected a Conservative minority government, not a coalition of opposition parties."
- [That was from a story in the Calgary Herald on May 18, 2007]
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