A Cerberus Capital Management LP spokesman told "Globes" that the hedge fund was still interested in Bank Leumi (TASE: LUMI). He made the comment in response to a "BusinessWeek" article that noted that the company had abandoned two planned acquisitions, faced other flagging investments, and problems at two major assets, Chrysler and General Motors Inc. (NYSE: GM) financial arm GMAC, have worsened.
The spokesman said, "Cerberus has billions of liquid dollars and a strong pipeline of business opportunities. We have the resources to make any deal that appears reasonable to our shareholders. We're still interested in Bank Leumi."
"BusinessWeek" cited sources at Cerebus as saying that the "$26 billion firm has slowed its pace of dealmaking with the credit in full force. It's also focusing more rigorously on the troubled companies in its portfolio, some of which may have blindsided the firm. The situation has prompted concern that Cerberus' returns may suffer."
"BusinessWeek" quotes Capital Dynamics managing director Katherine Lichtner as saying, "Industry returns have been extraordinary, 20% to 30% a year. Returns will come down, revert to a more normal 16%.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 23, 2007
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